University of Virginia Library

Virginia Politicians

About the most students see of politicians
is when they stomp the state, including the
Grounds of the University, in their quest for
public election. Almost all of the would-be
officeholders spoke to at least one University
group last month before their day of
reckoning, 3 November. They ranted and
raved, dodged and skirted, and generally tried
to win the listeners' support without ever
taking a substantive stand on any of the
issues.

The liberals pretended they were "just
folks" conservatives and the conservatives
qualified every statement with a cloud of
libertarian fog. In short, they seemed to be
unconsciously trying to all appear to be just
alike. Of course, last Tuesday the voter was
able, for better or for worse, to distinguish
between Candidate A and Candidate B and
thereby register his opinion. The losers now
are trying to raise the funds to pay off
oftentimes huge financial debts incurred by
campaign expenses while they desperately
search for a job.

What happens to the winners? Well,
besides paying off a political debt or two, they
are preparing to enter or reenter public
service, leaving too often their constituents
far behind. It seems to us that although the
representative or senator or governor is a busy
man he does have an obligation to keep in
touch with the people of his district or state.
This means he should be with them, feeling
the temper of their opinions, on more
occasions than just around election time. He
should be visiting more people than just a few
representatives of powerful interest groups.
Since he is supposed to be a representative of
and for the people, he should stay in
continuous consultation with the people.

Some of the people are at the University.
Students at the University were all objects of
criticism, at times rather harsh criticism, from
all of Tuesday's winners. The dissatisfaction
with students could be summed up in that
they are "too violent" and that they should
be (who can ever forget Mills Godwin?)
studying rather than concerning themselves
with trying to solve the world's problems.
These conclusions must be based on second
hand information, because the politicians
rarely come to Charlottesville to meet with
students, but view "campus disorders" and
"student dissent" from their offices,
commenting upon them with a patrician air of
impatience.

We would like to ask Virginia's public
servants to travel to Charlottesville or to
invite students to converse with them in
Washington or Richmond so that they will be
a little more informed before they
authoritatively condemn student activism as a
menace spawned by "a permissive society."
We encourage student groups, particularly the
Student Council and the University Union, to
bring people like Senator Byrd and Senator
Spong or Governor Holton to the Grounds to
meet with somebody other than a few
representatives from the Administration and
the Board of Visitors.