Last December, amidst a horrible budget crisis, I asked the citizens and leaders of Montgomery County to “keep the tone civil” (http://bit.ly/a0y31S) and to reexamine the way in which politics was done in Montgomery County in regards to public education. I had sincerely believed that an honest plea from a student would be enough to make our elected officials reevaluate the way they were handling their candidacies and transcend “politics as usual” that seems to plague the rest of the country. Yet, regardless of such attempts, our elected officials continue to be a poor reflection of the community that has elected them to lead.
As a student, everyday I bear witness to the atrocities of cyber-bullying and what seems like petty debate and argument on blogs, Facebook, twitter, and even in real life. Middle school students squabble about what this celebrity did and what that pop-star said, and high school students wrestle with issues of relationships and high school drama on a daily basis. It has only been months since there was a public outcry over the slanderous site called peoplesdirt.com, where high school students traded and exchanged gossip and slander about other students over the internet.
Yet, our elected officials, who are elected to be bastions of respect and role models in the community, cannot seem to throw off the very same shackles that their very own children face. They tell us that we should respect the golden rule, but fail to adhere to it themselves. The hypocrisy must stop. If the very people we look up to, slander and ridicule, what values are we teaching our children about the necessity to respect one another and treat others as they would like to be treated? Will we continue to perpetuate, generation after generation, a type of politics that is rooted in ruthless attacks and destructive criticism to win at the expense of a person’s credibility and character? Let me ask you a simple question: if you were child now, watching the way politics was unfolding in front of them, would you be inspired; would you want to become a public servant in the future? One would think that after thousands of years of human history, human nature would have evolved to a more civil attitude toward others, especially in the fragile nature that is politics. What makes us better than the power-hungry emperors that killed, poisoned, and stabbed each other to death in a reckless search for the throne thousands of years ago if the character of the debate and the people are still the same? Herein lie the problems with “politics as usual” and the seemingly perpetual problem of destructive politics that continue to plague our nation generation after generation.
I have grown up in North Potomac since 1993. This is where I have grown up essentially my entire life, and for almost two decades, I have observed politicians scrape and claw at each other for their seats. Consequently, I was excited to see the development of the internet over my lifetime because I believed that the internet would usher in a new era of transparency and collaboration with one another and a newfound ability for elected officials to connect with the voters. Recent events have shown quite the opposite.
Recently, incumbent Senator Nancy King created a website for the sole purpose of defaming Del. Saqib Ali in his attempt to run for State Senator. The site contains very little about policy objectives that Delegate Ali has proposed; rather it instead chooses to systematically attack his attendance, provide sensational photographs that seem to discredit his credibility, cites two promises that are not at all documented or substantiated, and attacks his use of social media in connecting with his constituents. This is the same kind senseless and ruthless attack on candidates that perpetuates the uncivil attitude in federal politics and the gridlock that seems to plague Congress and state legislatures around the country.
As for the specific issue of social media, as the student member of the board (SMOB), I have seen year after year the SMOB’s inability to connect with their constituents. This year was the first time students were able to truly interact with their elected officials thanks in part to the new and innovative tools that have developed over the past couple of years. Students on a great magnitude were able to come out and get involved in their own education. For the first time, they were empowered and felt a real connection to their Student Member. Consequently, Saqib Ali has done the same with his constituents by connecting them to the issues, while providing a personal “human” touch to politics and legislation, which many citizens fail to get. What many people fail to realize is that legislation is so much more than numbers, institutions, and statutes; rather it’s about improving human lives and dealing with the everyday problems that we face. Behind all the legal jargon and formal regulations, at the heart of it, our government was designed to reflect and correct the fallacies of our society and to serve the collective burdens of all the individual lives that make it up. Yet, when the majority of citizens in the district do not know who their State Senator is, there is clearly a disconnect between the legislature and the body politic. The electoral process was designed to be a collaborative process between the candidates and the people, where candidates expressed their platforms and solicited feedback from their constituents. And Delegate Ali has done just that. As such, Saqib Ali should be applauded for his use of social media in making the process a lot more bearable, a lot more efficient, and a lot more personal.
Furthermore, the Maryland General Assembly, according to its own constitution is a “citizen legislature”. The individuals elected to the General Assembly serve part-time as legislators and part-time as regular citizens and as such are entitled to the same family and social lives that regular citizens are entitled to. This was an attempt for the founders of Maryland to have our legislature be closer to the people. In a country where over 100 million people or just under 50% of the adult population use Facebook actively, it is absolutely ludicrous for Senator King to attack Delegate Ali over his personal use of Facebook and Twitter. Delegate Ali’s use of social media reaffirms our Founding Fathers’ mission in attempting to keep and maintain a citizen legislature that is deeply rooted in the community. In fact, Senator King’s inability to effectively leverage social media and build personal relationships not only reflects her trend towards acting against the interests of her constituents; but also reflects how out of touch her policies and interests are with their needs and lives, especially when the majority of her constituents are on Facebook.
Every official who is elected to office is asked to take an oath to protect the Constitution and the people of Maryland and to act with their best “skill and judgment” while in office. Was it too much to ask that our elected officials use their judgment to rise above the slander and cyber-bullying that our middle school students engage in? Was it too much to ask that our elected officials use their skills to engage in a policy-oriented discussion about what is best for the citizens of District 39 and the state of Maryland? Was it too much to ask that our elected officials act civil and set an example for the rest of America of how politics should really be conducted?
Meanwhile, in Florida, on Tuesday, voters will select their GOP candidate for Governor in their primaries to advance to the General Election. Contenders Bill McCollum and Rick Scott have been at each other’s throats for months now, attacking each other’s character and credibility and dragging each other's families and personal lives into the public eye, while the Democrats have been snickering and capitalizing on the GOP’s inability to provide real policy proposals. In the end, Alex Sink, the Democrat, seems to act like the only adult in the race, reprimanding the two candidates for acting like children. Is this really the kind of politics we want in Maryland? Do we really need politicians stuffing down their beliefs down the throats of their constituents? As Democrats, is it right to resort to GOP tactics and personally tear down a fellow Democrat's character?
Let me say this: I am not against constructive criticism and collaboration. While I applaud Senator King’s service and her attempt to engage her constituents and display her platform, the ends do not always justify the means. I urge Nancy King to take down the slanderous site and issue a public apology. I also urge both candidates, Saqib Ali and Nancy King, to keep the tone civil and policy-oriented for the sake of the residents of District 39 and the State of Maryland.
Our Founding Fathers built a nation that was rooted in democratic ideals; a society that was free to express their ideas about how government should run and elect a body that represented those views. They did not build a nation rooted in ad hominem, personal attacks targeted towards one another filled with slander and libel. Ultimately, this race is about who is able best fight on behalf of the residents of District 39 and not on who is able to best fight against their opponent. Changing the tone of the debate to one of policy will truly allow the residents to have the ability to have a fair shot at evaluating their candidates without the shadows, mirrors, and tricks of negative campaigning. Keep in mind the youth that are watching the character of the debate and are carefully learning. So, let’s rise above the petty and the slanderous. Let’s rise above the personal politics that the rest of the country engages in. Let's show the rest of the country how politics should REALLY work in this country. And let’s give the citizens of District 39 a real chance to make up their own minds about who to select as their next State Senator.
- Tim Hwang
