4 - Tuesday, November 21, 2006 The Michigan Daily - michiganclaily.com myMi I*gan Bjail Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890 413 E. Huron St. Ann Arbor, MI 48104 tothedaily@michigandaily.com DONN M. FRESARD EDITOR IN CHIEF EMILY BEAM CHRISTOPHER ZBROZEK EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS JEFFREY BLOOMER MANAGING EDITOR Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors. Power-hungry coeds MSA elections sacrifice substance for procedure The cartographers of old seem to have hit upon a win- ning metaphor for success, political and otherwise - redraw the same old forms with different names and boundaries, and you've got yourself a new map. The Michigan Action Party has swept student government elections, winning every LSA Student Government seat and the majority of other contested seats in the Michigan Student Assembly. In the after- math of yet another complacent student government election, MSA should reclaim its role as the representative government of a highly politicized student body - and should temper its concerns accordingly. I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project." - News Corporation Chairman RUPERT MURDOCH, announcing his decision to cancel O.J. Simpson's book "If I Did It," a "fictional" account of how Simpson would have killed his wife, as reported yesterday by CNN.com. ERIN RUSSELL | ss 1 Q cON6BE$$ WO OTNT 1HAO OT6E $HA5 6, 1.I1GING CONYG{ $ DCTO CR 5 WOL N01' A 7 f # 37 . S P©LdT cAWS A 56NOMSV PA$$ A GuL t !H AVE IVAPEQI AQ AMECAN 6AN ATSP OIL-NTO EINSTAT E ni IF FH EIB CHILOR'EN EQUAury l O F CANAaAN UItFE. MIUIAPY A BEEN 09AFTEW. PATriOTISM. WRAFT, - - The danger of ipar'tisns 4 a Although this fall's MSA elections saw a newly reconstituted alphabet soup enter the political arena - MAP in place of the now-defunct Students 4 Michigan Party, the Student Liberty Party, the Defend Affirmative Action Party and the dog- gedly endearing Hungry Hungry Coeds. com Party - the flavor of said soup has not changed. MSA elections still conjure up the same stale images of lofty overtures to nothing in particular greeted by a remark- able silence on the part of the student body. It is difficult to tell what is more dis- turbing - the HungryHungryCoeds.com Party's inability to gather student support with promises of free food, or the fact that MAP, an old party with a new name, could manage to change its face and still main- tain its dynastic rule. The distance between the University's student populace and its elected represen- tatives wouldn't be so distressing if MSA were really as inconsequential as its candi- dates' claims may make it appear. Howev- er, the fact of the matter remains that MSA controls a budget of roughly $500,000 - almost entirely composed of student activity fees that each student pays. MSA, dominated by S4M-turned-MAP as it may be, needs to make a concerted effort to make its proceedings intelligible to the student body. Moreover, it should make its resolutions and projects interesting. However much MSA candidates and parties need to improve, this fall's election cycle saw considerable innovation in elec- tioneering techniques. The relative infre- quency of party spam made for a happier student body while presenting potential MSA candidates with a creative dilemma - how to encourage student voting when the most conspicuous initiatives irritated and turned students away? Laptop voting stations in Angell Hall served as an inno- vative way to bring the election process directly to the students - even if the pro- cedure of the politics obscured an empty core. All politicians walk a fine line, but MSA walks the line between dynastic rule and apolitical leadership guild - both forms of government miles away from the ideal of a representative student assembly. Stand- ing for something rather than promising everything and signifying, well, nothing is immensely preferred. But the uncomfort- able political pauses spent pondering the ubiquitous crisis in student government will never last long. There will always be the cruel rumbling of a stomach to remind us that we're still looking for a party that delivers - whether pizza or politics. conservative friend of mine once told me he didn't believe in democracy. After telling me he voted for Bush because he didn't think we should switch leaders during wartime, he said: "Look at history. Our culture is in decline. Our leaders are cor- rupt. Do you really think democracy can work in this deca- dent society?" The implication was clear: We need a dictator, not just to protect us from '5< our enemies, but to save us from our- selves. As the new Democratic Con- TOBY gress prepares MITCHELL to take office, a chorus of pundits is calling for biparti- sanship. We're told that all sides have something to contribute to the debate over exactly how much of the Constitu- tion we should throw away. But like my friend, the modern Republican Party is not conservative but authoritarian. How could American citizens hold such anti-democratic views? Following the Second World War, Theodor Adorno asked the same question in "The Author- itarian Personality."Would a significant number of Americans be susceptible to "fascistic" ideologies? Participants in this extensive psychological study were ranked based on their response to state- ments such as: * "Obedience andrespectfor author- ity are the most important virtues chil- dren should learn." " "Homosexuality is a particularly rotten form of delinquency and ought to be severely punished." " "Too many people today are liv- ing in an unnatural, soft way; we should return to the fundamentals, to a more red-blooded, active way of life." The study took pains to distinguish principled conservatism from the author- itarian fear of weakness and identifica- tion with strength. The book's essential insight is still relevant today:Authoritar- ians see threats everywhere and demand strong leaders to protect them precisely because those threats are inside them and therefore never disappear. Ted Haggard's recent disgrace is a prime example. While tirelessly blast- ing gays in public, this prominent leader of the Christian right was apparently having meth-fueled orgies with a homo- sexual prostitute. He's hardly alone; Rush Limbaugh bemoaned America's moral decay while sending his maid to pick up black-market drugs, and alco- hol seems to have released Mel Gibson's inner anti-Semite and Mark Foley's hid- den pervert. These revelations are not surprising. Since their rigid morality denies impuls- es that other people develop socially acceptable means of expressing, author- itarians must project these compulsions outward: "It's not me that's sick; it's everyone else!" It's especially handy if society has a ready stock of acceptable scapegoats, e.g. Muslims, immigrants, atheists and queers. As Sen. Rick Santo- rum (R-Penn.) showed, anti-gay bigots are often more obsessed with gay sex than the horniest homosexuals. American Christian conservatives are especially susceptible to authoritar- ian ideology. Their Puritanical upbring- ing sows a rich field of repression and a corresponding need for strong control. As a southern Republican on CNN said, "There are some people, and I'm one of them, that believe George Bush was placed where he is by the Lord. I don't care how he governs, I will support him." The Bush Administration feeds this base's fears - the terrorists are every- where, they're watching, they're ready to pounce at any sign of weakness. As Attorney General Alberto Gonzales recently reminded us, questioning the President's illegal domestic spying pro- gram "is itself a grave threat to the liber- ty and security of the American people." Some Democrats have internalized the authoritarian right's bullying. Hill- ary Clinton is bending over backward to show how conservative she can be. Two Michigan Daily columnists recently argued that the Democratic Congress needs to appear bipartisan on terror and Iraq, parroting the Right's own criti- cism of anyone who doesn't share their hysteria. The call for bipartisanship fits the insipid pseudo-tolerance many lib- Republicans are authoritarians, not conservatives. erals espouse: "Let's listen and under- stand the bully. He was probably abused as a child." There are fundamental democratic values that simply cannot be compro- mised. Bigotry is wrong. Torture is wrong. Unilateral war is so wrong we fought two world wars and invented the United Nations to try to end it. The NSA spying program must be curtailed, the CIA secret prisons closed and congres- sional investigative power asserted with rigor. Bipartisanship with conserva- tives is fine, but the authoritarian move- ment that has taken over the Republican Party must be destroyed. The American system is not so per- fect that the temptation to surrender freedom toa Caesar is foreign to us. Ide- ologies that deny choice, whether those of terrorists or of the American authori- tarians obsessed with them, do not deserve our respect, our understanding or our tolerance. And it is up to each of us to demand that liberty is never aban- doned for the reassuring slumber of blind obedience. Toby Mitchell can be reached at tojami@umich.edu. is SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@MICHIGANDAILY.COM Students exceed 400 pages 'every damn semester' TO THE DAILY: I pay extra money every damn semester because I go over my printing limit halfway through the semester. Four hundred pages is not enough when every class goes through more than 60 slides on PowerPoint. Patrick Wycihowski LSA senior Microcredit an effective tool that deserves U.S. support TO THE DAILY: On Dec. 10, the Nobel Committee will award the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize to a great visionary who proved to the world that very poor women are a good credit risk: Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank of Bangla- desh. Thirty years ago, Yunus began the process of providing tiny loans to very poor people so that they could start up or expand small busi- nesses and thereby care for their families' health and nutrition. About 20 years ago, the anti-poverty lobby- ing group RESULTS (which now has a chapter on campus) began advocating for funding for microcredit loans in Congress and at the World Bank via letters and meetings. Largely because of these efforts, more than 100 million people around the world are now utilizing microcredit loans to escape the cycle of poverty. Unfortunately, there are millions more very poor people who live on less than a dollar a day, mainly in Africa, who still lack access to micro- credit. Despite the fact that the U.S. Congress has prioritized microcredit for the very poor, our U.S. Agency for International Development has yet to comply with congressional directives to ensure that very poor people are not denied this opportunity to turn their lives around. The World Bank too, despite repeated prompting by Congress, spends less than 1 percent of its huge budget on microcredit. Now that Yunus's microcredit miracle in Ban- gladeshhas beengiventhe international recogni- tion that it deserves, maybe it's time that USAID and the World Bank step up and mobilize their full capabilities to provide microcredit to the very poor. Lisa Treumuth Pharmacy The letter writer is a member of the University chapter ofRESULTS. RACHEL WAGNER Don't blame Yorktown ALEXANDER HONKALA Most people have never heard of my hometown because Yorktown, a suburb of New York City in northern West- chester County, rarely makes it on to the national radar. When a friend recently told me that a New York Times article mentioned my town, I immediately checked it out, curious to see what sort of coverage Yorktown received. The article featured families who moved from New York City to Westchester County for the highly regarded public school system - only to find themselves dissatisfied with schools that didn't live up to their reputation. My rush of excitement quickly soured when two families hurled insults at the Yorktown public school system: "uninspir- ing," "unresponsive" and "unimaginative." Other districts were criticized in the article too, tar- geted for having crowded classrooms, "barebones arts and sports programs" and teachers who taught to the test. Having spent my entire K-12 education in Yorktown Pub- lic Schools, though, these harsh judgments didn't seem to match up with my generally positive experience. Granted, Yorktown schools are far from perfect, yet it seems that individual public schools are taking flak for problems caused at a national, not a local, level. The federal government's No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 aimed to make public schools more account- able through standardized testing and school choice for families in failing districts, but NCLB hurt public educa- tion more than it helped. This doesn't leave Westchester schools or any other public school system completely free of blame for their shortcomings, but parents and students should understand that many of problems in their local schools result from complying with federal programs, not from local ineptitude and neglect. NCLB mandates annual testing in reading and math in grades 3 through 8 and once during high school, with the addition of science to the list by end of the 2007-2008 school year. These provisions have created an educational system obsessed with standardized testing rather than imparting real and diverse knowledge. Teachers teach to the test because of pressure on schools to exceed state testing benchmarks - not necessarily because they are unoriginal. The narrowing of school curricula allots less time to social studies and foreign languages in favor of reading and math, while inadequate funding has led to disastrous cuts in athletic and arts programs. In light of misguided federal policy, complaints must be leveled at national law instead of individual public school systems. The New York Times piece did more, though, than just increase my distaste for current education policy. In the article, disappointed parents pulled their children out of the public schools to drive them to prestigious, pricey pri- vate schools as far away as New York City. What happens, though, in public school districts that actually are failing where parents can't afford to send their kids elsewhere? Westchester County, like many other communities, has found itself insulated where the best is the best and the worst is still pretty good. I used to complain about lack- luster teachers and the possible elimination of my eight- person advanced placement French program at my high school until I realized that the same federal laws affecting my school had a far greater effect on other public schools on a grander and more disturbing scale. Consider Detroit's public school system, for example. Out of 225 public schools, 103 failed to meet NCLB stan- dards, and the district lost an estimated 25,000 students this fall alone, partly due to NCLB option of school choice for parents in failing districts. Due to falling enrollment, Detroit looks to close 95 schools by 2009. Parents watch their public schools lay off teachers, cut arts and sports programs and sometimes even lower the heat to deal with the effects of NCLB and underfunding. Yet with roughly a third of Detroit residents living below the poverty level, many parents don't have the option to seek out a private school for their children. It was an embarrassing moment when I realized I had lamented over a district that consistently outperforms districts in more dire straits. Due to NCLB, public schools are being punished instead of corrected, and families flee while nothing is being fixed. This problem is as present in Yorktown as it is in Detroit. Despite these flawed federal education policies, we shouldn't give up on the public school system. Pub- lic education is worth fighting for because it offers a less expensive educational and social experience for children. If the country sticks to this precarious federal course, some privileged children may get ahead, but it will be the public schools that are unfortunately left behind. Rachel Wagner is an LSA junior and a member of the Daily's editorial board. .s. k< 0 I 0 U I Editorial Board Members: Reggie Brown, Kevin Bunkley, Amanda Burns, Sam Butler, Ben Caleca, Devika Daga, Milly Dick, James David Dickson, Jesse Forester, Gary Graca, Jared Goldberg, Jessi Holler, Rafi Martina, Toby Mitchell, Rajiv Prabhakar, David Russell, Katherine Seid, Elizabeth Stanley, John Stiglich, Neil Tambe, Rachel Wagner.