Character assassination hits student politics
“In our brief national history we have shot four of our presidents, worried five of them to death, impeached one and hounded another out of office. And when all else fails, we hold an election and assassinate their character.”
That was written by P.J. O’Rourke, a fairly good American novelist and political commentator. He was talking about the American President, but it seems a good quote to apply to politics in general—even Nevada’s student government politics.
Over the past month or so, there have been a number of pieces in The Nevada Sagebrush concerning “problems” in the Associated Students of the University of Nevada. The elections were royally screwed up. ASUN is facing a hefty budget shortfall. President Eli Reilly is trying to appoint supposedly unqualified individuals to cabinet positions. And Sean McDonald is filing lawsuits left and right.
Through all of this there has been one disturbing trend: Character assassination directed at Reilly. Every slip up, stupid quote and mistake he has made has been grabbed and used to indict his character. To many, it seems as if Eli is the worst thing to happen to this campus. Ever.
I won’t spend my time defending him—he’s made mistakes. Criticism is both fair and due, but it is the tone of the crap being slung that is scary.
After five years of student government, four attempted impeachments (one of them my own), and all the other garbage, I’ve seen a lot in ASUN. But this last year was the worst. The government was stopped from doing anything meaningful because those with power couldn’t figure out how to do one simple thing: talk.
Filing lawsuits before you talk to someone about how you think they are screwing up is not productive. There are over 150 pages of laws and no one, not even McDonald, knows them all by heart. The president doesn’t have a cadre of lawyers checking and double checking his every step.
Accusing Reilly of cronyism because he nominated someone to run Flipside who’s been running a non-profit longer than anyone in student government has been in college is irresponsible and immature. Maybe Casey Steitler wasn’t the most qualified, but he damn sure was qualified. Perhaps those same people who think Steitler wasn’t qualified think Milton Glick isn’t qualified to be Nevada’s president because he wasn’t a professor here.
Here are some suggestions for a more civil ASUN: When you disagree with someone, don’t get yourself all worked up thinking the other person is trying to screw you over. If someone “breaks” the law, don’t think it’s because they hate rules (unless, of course, that’s what they tell you). Sit down with the person and talk. Try and get on the same page.
For those who have stepped into leadership roles this year in ASUN, I encourage you not to make the same mistake. Not only will you not be able to change this campus for the better, you will destroy any chance you had at using ASUN as a positive learning experience. And it is such a tremendous experience to throw away over a pissing contest. Don’t screw it up now because it isn’t something that’ll be easy to fix later.
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on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 10:24 pm and is filed under Perspectives.
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May 5th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
“But this last year was the worst. The government was stopped from doing anything meaningful because those with power couldn’t figure out how to do one simple thing: talk.”
We didn’t do anything meaningful this past year? Communication between the branches was an issue, but come on now. You know better.