[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 13 (Thursday, February 10, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 10, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                            PUBLIC CYNICISM

                                 ______


                          HON. LEE H. HAMILTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 10, 1994

  Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Speaker, I am inserting my Washington report for 
Wednesday, January 12, 1994, into the Congressional Record:

                            Public Cynicism

       The headline of a major national newspaper caught my eye, 
     ``Mistrust of Washington Spreads Across the Country.'' It is 
     easy to see why people distrust Washington. Most Americans 
     lead very busy lives which permit only limited attention to 
     politics. But they hear and see plenty to worry them. Stories 
     of Washington's stupidity and self-interest are abundant. As 
     one constituent put it to me the other day, ``You certainly 
     are a bunch of idiots up there.'' A large number of people 
     simply believe that politics, particularly as practiced in 
     Washington, is fundamentally corrupt.
       Sources of Cynicism: Most surveys today show that large 
     segments of the electorate are deeply angry at government and 
     that the politics of discontent is very much a part of 
     contemporary politics.
       Americans certainly have a lot to be cynical about. 
     Government deficits, wasteful spending, the personal lives of 
     many politicians, Watergate, Iran-contra, and bungled 
     policies give them plenty of ammunition. So the voter is 
     often angry and disillusioned, and it is not difficult for 
     various people to play upon this unhappiness and amplify it.
       Politicians contribute to the problem by spending much time 
     attacking each other and each other's motives. Political 
     campaigns use TV and print ads to attack opponents, and the 
     political combat, which used to be restricted to election 
     time, seems to go on all the time now. Members of Congress 
     often run for Congress by running against it.
       Many interest groups have developed direct mail techniques 
     to an art form and use heated rhetoric to convince people 
     that they are being endangered by sinister politicians. 
     Millions of pieces of direct mail to out every month 
     soliciting funds and playing upon the hopes and the fears and 
     the checkbooks of Americans. A whole industry is built on 
     portraying government as corrupt. The more these industry 
     groups can persuade people of official deception and bungling 
     in Washington, the more money they can raise to carry on 
     their campaigns for whatever objectives they seek.
       The national media seem to enjoy nothing more than 
     attacking prominent politicians and criticizing every misstep 
     by the President or the Congress. Political coverage has 
     become much more negative in the past several decades. TV 
     journalism today is filled with programs whose purpose is to 
     show how bad the system is and to highlight outrageous 
     events. It is no wonder that people think there is nothing 
     right with the system at all. Many of the most popular 
     commentators are people who have mastered the sound bite and 
     are able to make hard-hitting observations, but who really do 
     not spend much time talking about the complexity of the 
     problems or the difficulty of the solutions.
       Sorting through all of the available information is a tough 
     job for any voter. More information does not always lead to 
     more understanding. Many people would say that it is 
     ultimately the voter's responsibility to pay attention to the 
     process and to decide among the charges and countercharges 
     what is true and important and what is not. For most voters 
     the political combat leaves a blur of evidence that 
     government just does not work very well. They hear bits and 
     pieces from television and read snatches of reports in the 
     print media, but it is very hard for them to put it all 
     together. They have very little opportunity to hear about or 
     see much of the hard work and effort that goes into the 
     process of government in Washington.
       Consequences of Skepticism: Everyone would acknowledge that 
     skepticism about government is healthy. The difficulty arises 
     when the skepticism is so deep that voters end up with no 
     faith or trust in government. Our government's institutions 
     in the end are based on people's faith in them, and without 
     that faith they simply cannot work properly.
       This climate of cynicism and skepticism--which politicians 
     themselves have done much to create--makes it very hard to 
     bring about change in the system. It is difficult to launch a 
     new initiative today to meet a pressing need because of the 
     depth of public cynicism about government. Not long ago I 
     asked a group of Hoosiers to name a government program that 
     they thought worked pretty well. No one offered any example, 
     not even older people in the group who cash a social security 
     check every month.
       It is almost impossible to persuade voters today that there 
     are politicians who are seeking to bring about change for the 
     public good and are not just working for some personal 
     advantage. We live in a time when there has been an increase 
     over three or four decades in the amount of skepticism and 
     cynicism about politicians. All of us engaged in the 
     political process find it difficult to function in the 
     present climate in which our character, values, and motives 
     are always suspect.
       The largest danger of this deep-seated cynicism is that it 
     undermines principled and reasoned discussion and democratic 
     deliberation. The cynic takes the words and actions of a 
     politician and, rather than discuss and debate those words 
     and actions, simply attributes them to an effort by the 
     politician to serve his own interest and to suit his own 
     purposes. The cynic is always looking for something nefarious 
     behind the words and actions of the politician; for example, 
     a politician opposes a certain bill not because he has a 
     principled view in opposition to it but because of his 
     ambition to gain higher office or because he has some 
     financial interest involved or because he has been bought off 
     by special interests. It has become harder and harder for the 
     voter to believe that a politician advocates a certain course 
     of action simply because he believes in it.
       This is not to say that politicians do not behave in ways 
     that foster cynicism. Voters would be foolish indeed to take 
     everything they hear at face value. But it is also true that 
     if voters judge everything on the basis of hidden motives we 
     never get around to discussing the substance of an issue. It 
     is much easier to attack the politician for being 
     unprincipled and having nefarious motives than it is to 
     discuss the merits of the issue.
       One of the most difficult tasks of a politician today is to 
     try to bring out the best in the country and the best in 
     people. In the present climate it is not easy to elevate 
     their thoughts and to make them believe that good things are 
     possible.

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