University of Virginia Library

Robert Gillmore

An Unfortunate Victim
Of Student Arrogance

If Murat Williams is defeated for
the 7th District Congressional seat
next Tuesday — as is likely — the loss
will be significant.

If Mr. Williams loses, defeated
will be a man who would probably
have been Virginia's most liberal
Congressman and one of the best
prepared and most enlightened
members of the entire Southern
delegation.

Democratic sources concede
privately that Mr. Williams is now
behind his conservative Republican
opponent — but only narrowly.

And they add the obvious point
that any additional positive factor
could put him over the top — and
that factor could of course be
students.

No Students

Example: Barely two dozen
students have worked locally for
Mr. Williams, whereas he could use
a hundred.

Example: If half the University
student body supports Mr. Williams
(a conservative estimate) and each
one donated a dollar to his campaign,
Mr. Williams' war chest
would increase by $5,000 — enough
for an 11th hour media blitz.

Either 100 students or $5,000
could elect Mr. Williams.

But neither seems forthcoming.

Student non-support in this
fall's election is apparently nationwide.

Last spring, of course, there
appeared to be the blossoming of
substantial student involvement in
Congressional campaigns. The
Movement for a New Congress was
formed at Princeton; universities
planned to recess for elections this
fall; and two of every five students
planned to work for their favorite
(probably anti-war) candidate.

This fall it is apparent that last
spring's enthusiasm was but a flash
in the pan. At universities with a
campaign recess maybe only about
one of ten students is campaigning.
At other colleges, participation is
even lower.

This fall, then, is the year of the
great student cop-out.

The phenomenon, though, is not
new.

Last spring Congress approved
the 18 year-old vote—despite a
complete lack of any student lobbying.

15 Dunderheads

More than two years ago, James
Reston told my college graduating
class: "It would not be too difficult
to identify 15 of the worst dunderheads
on Capitol Hill"—and for
students to defeat them.

Today most of the dunderheads
are still there.

Last spring it appeared that
students were aware that there were
two elective branches of the federal
government and that they were at
last ready to do something about
the dunderheads.

But not so.

And why? Why the malaise?

Perhaps there are two reasons:

One, foolishness, Strangely
enough, most college students'
knowledge of the craft of winning
elections ranges from slightly
uninformed to the profoundly
ignorant. All too often they have
exaggerated both the case and the
difficulty of winning an election; in
neither case have they known either
the obstacles confronting them or
the techniques for overcoming
them.

Foolishness Remedial

But foolishness among
intelligent people is remedial. The
larger difficulty is a second: And
that seems to be arrogance—an
arrogance which refuses to confess
its ignorance and which refuses to
overcome it.

But that arrogance itself is based
on ignorance—an utterly
indefensible prejudice that the
"system" is profoundly wrong and,
more, that it is thoroughly
unchangeable.

This arrogance of ignorance
produces such absurd
understandings like the one that
says that the McCarthy movement
was a failure because the Minnesota
senator was not nominated—even
though it forced a President's
abdication and the reversal of a war
policy.

This arrogance of ignorance
produces such behavior as students
complaining that the "system" does
not work merely because hawkish
Congressmen they talk to for five
minutes do not suddenly become
doves.

This arrogance is ultimately
responsible for Mr. Williams' scant
student support and for his likely
defeat next Tuesday.