Whole Life Times: Belief is Everything

October 2004

Belief is Everything

Betrayals and contradictions strain citizens’ trust

by T.J. Sullivan

Four years ago on Halloween, one week before the 2000 Elections, hundreds gathered outside the historic Bruin theatre in L.A.’s Westwood Village for a campaign rally. In recognition of the holiday, some came in costume, including a few wearing rubber masks cast in the image of Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore and his Republican opponent, George W. Bush. It was a Gore event, but several boisterous Bush supporters were in attendance, waving Bush/Cheney signs and attempting to bellow over the words of celebrity speakers like Whoopie Goldberg. Also striving for attention were street vendors busily hawking campaign T-shirts and buttons.

It was a picture-perfect display of American democracy, complete with the cynics who, after happening accidentally upon the spectacle, stood on the sidelines shaking their heads at the rallying crowds. Convinced that the new occupant of the White House wouldn’t make much difference either way, to them the choice was about as influential as paper or plastic, window or aisle.

Gore was late, having first made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in Burbank, so organizers played music from a new U2 album. In one song, lead-singer Bono crooned: “Won’t you tell me something true, I believe in you.”

The lyrics struck a chord, particularly given the criticism the Democrats were taking after Bill Clinton’s missteps with Monica Lewinsky. Truth, as those cynics on the sidelines would surely have stated (had anyone bothered to ask), isn’t easy to find in politics. But belief—belief is everything.

If a majority of Americans lost all faith in the government, what would become of it? Our nation may be on the verge of finding out.

Nearly four years after the scandalous conclusion to the 2000 election—an event that left many convinced that the presidency was stolen—the public’s trust in government appears battered and thin. And with the current debate surrounding electronic voting machines, a growing group of concerned citizens believe conditions are ripe for a second presidential election scandal—a possibility that could destroy many Americans’ last shreds of faith in our nation’s democratic process.

The reasons voters cite for their loss of trust in government are as varied as the voters themselves.

California residents were shocked by the electricity crisis of 2000 and 2001, when power users were told there simply wasn’t enough energy to go around only to learn that greedy energy companies had manipulated supply to drive up costs.

Nationally, many Americans were appalled when the Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction,” the primary reason for our invasion of Iraq, were exposed as an empty claim. Revelations of Iraqi prisoner abuse and somber daily reports from the frontlines only feed the nation’s mounting disapproval.

And then there are the recent allegations challenging both John Kerry and George W. Bush on their war records. Poll numbers seem to indicate that a significant number of voters are swayed and dismayed by the candidates’ alleged misrepresentation of their military service.

Some Republicans, like Jeffers Dodge who organized voter registration efforts and Kerry protests in Santa Monica this past summer, attribute the apparent mood of voter mistrust to little more than Democrat grousing, a reaction to “losing” the 2000 election. And Linda S. Boyd, chairman of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County, dismissed the idea that public trust has suffered. “Cynicism and apathy are less pronounced now than they were five years ago,” she alleged during a telephone interview. “I think people believe that their president is more trustworthy and just a far better leader.”

But Mary Corey, a history professor at UCLA, disagrees. “People are completely cynical,” said Corey, who was in New York last August when the Bush administration increased the terror threat level, a move that was immediately suspected as being politically motivated. “People were going about their business... they did not believe it,” said Corey.

Corey traces the current condition of public mistrust back to the civil rights struggles of the ‘60s and to historical disgraces such as Watergate, the Vietnam War and the Iran-Contra scandal. She worries that the newest generation of voters have entirely lost hope.

“When you look at the ‘60s and... at people like me who were [active] in the ‘60s... we were true believers in the American Creed. We were able to give up our careers and our college standing in order to fight for our country, to get our country to be what we wanted,” she said. “This generation is more disassociated, much more dispassionate ... and they certainly don’t think that they’re going to have any impact. They see the Bill of Rights and those kind of things as empty promises.”

In contrast, Chris Soper, a professor of political science at Pepperdine University, has a more hopeful point of view. While Soper concedes that there is data to support the theory that the public’s level of trust in government is lower than it was 30 or 40 years ago, he posits the idea that political dissatisfaction and mistrust might in fact inspire increased political participation.

“Obviously it’s a highly charged partisan time, but that doesn’t mean that there’s a high degree of cynicism,” Soper said. “The proof will be in the pudding when we look at actual [voter] turnouts.

“All the evidence suggests that a larger percentage of Americans have made up their minds about whom they’re going to vote for than in previous elections,” Soper said. “To me, that would suggest that people are more tuned into politics than they were four years ago.”

Martin Johnson, an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Riverside, agrees with Soper. Johnson is currently studying the development of public opinion and its effects on government policy.

“While I don’t think we’re on the road to doom, we might be on the road to someplace different,” Johnson said. “I think these folks who think we are on the road to doom are... providing a good voice for vigilance, for involvement, for participation. We want people to think about things... probe and investigate and find their answers... yet at the same time we think that cynicism is a bad thing. Striking that balance is difficult.”

It’s a balance that’s very apparent to Jerry Rubin, a Santa Monica peace activist who has sold political bumper stickers for 30 years. The most popular sticker over all that time? The simple proclamation, “Question Authority.”

“If people lead, the leaders will follow,” Rubin said. “We’ve lost touch with that.”

Soper disagrees with that assessment, and points to the proliferation of alternative political media as a positive sign. Books, benefit concerts and movies such as Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 have been filling spaces previously occupied by non-political entertainment.

“I think the hopeful side of it would be that... people really do care about politics in a way that hasn’t been the case since the 1960s,” Soper said.

Martin Kaplan, Associate Dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication, sees the growing popularity of alternative political media as an indicator that much of the country craves a voice in the public debate.

“I think it’s because of the pent-up demand for an alternative narrative for what’s happened in America during these past few years,” said Kaplan, who hosts the show “So What Else Is News” Saturday afternoons on liberal talk radio station Air America.

“Despite the right wing clamor that the press is liberal, the reality is that the press is wildly dominated by the right... so when along comes a Michael Moore, [it] satisf[ies] a hunger and a yearning for an understanding... that the other half of the country hasn’t heard.”

While Michael Moore’s work doesn’t appeal to everyone, his provocative voice inevitably sparks opinion, challenging his audience to clearly articulate what they believe to be true.

If all that passion is motivation, then there’s no reason that voters on all sides shouldn’t show up at the polls in record numbers on Election Day to unite in perhaps their only common belief—faith in the integrity of the ballot box.

And while many will focus their attention that evening on the declaration of the winner, perhaps the more important result will be whether the election system produces an unimpeachable tally, regardless of whether the method is punch cards or electronic voting machines.

Determining how much damage could be done to America’s democracy by a further loss of trust in the election system is little more than guess work. But the truth is, without belief, at some point voters are bound to start asking: What’s the point of participation?

T.J. Sullivan, a freelance writer with more than 15 years experience as a journalist, acknowledges that several polls and studies show that readers have more trust in government than in the media. Sullivan has just completed a first novel. [click to e-mail].

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