A L S O__T O D A Y Left Hook By Joe Conason Head of Newt: Will Gingrich pay if Republicans blow the election? [ MEDIA CIRCUS ] Freshen up your election, hon? By James Poniewozik Politicians and pollsters, run! It's the attack of -- 60-foot Waitress Mom!   T A B L E+T A L K Does America's prison system need to be reformed? Discuss why or why not in the Social Issues area of Table Talk   R E C E N T L Y Strange bedfellows By Christopher Ott Anti-gay voters in Madison, Wis., could help elect the nation's first open lesbian to Congress (11/02/98) Starr springs a leak By Joe Conason Federal judge appoints special master to investigate illegal disclosures to media (10/30/98) Minnesota maverick By Micah Sifry The Reform Party's Jesse Ventura -- ex-Navy Seal and former professional wrestler -- is riding a wave of populist anger to become a contender in the governor's race (10/30/98) Illustrious historians blast attempt to impeach Clinton (10/30/98) Senator Strongarm By William Kistner and Murray Waas How Al D'Amato threatened African AIDS funding to help a big campaign contributor (10/29/98) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - S A L O N E M P O R I U M FREE! 12-ounce bag of Salon Blend with a purchase of $30 or more. While supplies last.
		ARISTOCRACY OF THE DROPOUTS | PAGE 1, 2 - - - - - - - - - - One reason people don't vote is that they're not registered -- that's 19 percent of the voting-age population, including convicted criminals in many states, who are disproportionately African-American, and many of the ill and the elderly. Getting an absentee ballot in many states is no picnic. (Before the September primary, in New York City, it took me two phone calls and a lot of voice-mail patience to get an application for an absentee ballot. After I mailed it, the actual ballot arrived too late. Call me a primary nonvoter.) Even after a Democratic Congress passed the motor-voter bill in 1993 and President Clinton signed it (after several Bush vetoes), many states dragged their feet setting up procedures to get the paperwork done. Making voting too easy might not be a good career move for many politicians. But the nonregistered are only a minority of the nonvoters. Most nonvoters have gone to the trouble of registering and don't want to go to any more. Some are, they say, "not interested." Some think not voting is a positive act, a declaration of independence. They're voting with their feet -- voting against politics. Politics is for suckers, they believe. Politics has victimized them, left them behind, so they are taking revenge. There are more of these affirmative nonvoters every year, who think not voting is a righteous act, a sort of civil disobedience. Don't vote, goes the bumper sticker, it only encourages them. By not voting, this growing majority ensures that politics will be dominated by the politicians they despise. A luxurious attitude, befitting a sort of aristocracy of dropouts. Enter the Republicans with their on-again, off-again attack ads that lots of people (not only high-minded do-gooders) hate with a passion. Why, since the public so fiercely disapproves of these accusations, do the Republicans still love to point fingers in living color? Why, after denying that they would do so, did the Republicans bring out their poison darts in the closing days of the campaign? In part, precisely because so-called negative ads are offensive, and being offensive is the Republicans' best defense. Ugly politics keep people away from the ballot box. The uglier the campaign, the more people decide that all politics are the work of the devil, and they want to stand clear of them. The more vicious the Republicans are, the more likely to convince the already estranged that politicians are unseemly and politics a pastime for fools. And therefore, the more likely the alienated citizen is to find something more absorbing to do on Nov. 3 than drag him- or herself to the polling place. So inciting anger against politics serves a Republican purpose. One shouldn't exaggerate this, however. Left-wingers make the mistake of thinking that nonvoters are sitting on their hands waiting for a righteous party of the left, as if they constitute a reserve army of the potentially radical. There's no evidence for that, and a lot of evidence to the contrary. The liberal left has squandered its natural advantage on economic issues -- HMOs, the minimum wage, Social Security, education funding -- by resorting to a self-immolating identity politics that doesn't rely on its enemies to divide and conquer; it does the job itself. But voter estrangement marries complacency in today's politics. This estrangement feeds on itself. Voters rule, nonvoters are ruled. The people who benefit least from politics as they exists are least likely to vote, and by not voting, preserve the lock the complacent have on the politics that works to the advantage of voters and the disadvantage of nonvoters. Thus, the self-fulfilling prophecy that rules American politics. Believing makes it so. Prepare then for the next phase of the Republican Standoff -- the epilogue to their Revolution, which even in failing has succeeded in bottling up most Democratic initiatives, limited though they were, over the last four years. Despite the disappointments (for Republicans) of the Gingrich years, this failed Revolution still sets the boundaries of the possible for American decisions about wages, equality, health care, child care, labor law, trade, environment and whatever other issues you care to name. The best result Democrats hope for this week is a Republican victory too slender to support impeachment. True enough, rolling back the slow-motion Republican coup d'état that proceeded under cover of the prosecutorial Starr would be an achievement. It would be a fine thing to elect more than 41 senators, thus to remain cloture-proof. To put the Christian right in its place is a necessary condition for progress. But for small-"d" democrats, a nondefeat defeat is a weak expectation indeed. Unhappy is a party that has need of such victories. Certainly Bill Clinton hoped for a better political legacy than mustering enough votes to avoid impeachment. The hope of making progress on the big questions in American politics is forestalled as long as nonvoters make up the majority party. SALON | Nov. 3, 1998 Todd Gitlin is professor of culture, journalism and sociology at New York University; a columnist for the New York Observer; and the author of "The Twilight of Common Dreams: Why America Is Wracked by Culture Wars" (Metropolitan/Henry Holt) and "The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage" (Bantam). - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - T A B L E_ T A L K Discuss how you'll vote, if you vote, in the Election Day 1998 discussion in Table Talk's Politics area. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - R E L A T E D_.S A L O N_.S T O R I E S Head of Newt Will Gingrich pay if Republicans blow the election? By Joe Conason Nov. 3, 1998 Freshen up your election hon? Politicians and pollsters, run! It's the attack of -- 60-foot Waitress Mom! James Poniewozik Nov. 3, 1998 Strange bedfellows Anti-gay voters in Madison, Wis., could help elect the nation's first open lesbian to Congress. By Christopher Ott Nov. 2, 1998 Minnesota maverick The Reform Party's Jesse Ventura -- ex-Navy Seal and former professional wrestler -- is riding a wave of populist anger to become a contender in the governor's race. By Micah Sifry Oct. 30, 1998 Senator Strongarm How Al D'Amato threatened African AIDS funding to help a campaign contributor. By William Kistner and Murray Waas Oct. 29, 1998 Who's lying about Monica now? A Republican campaign leader lies to reporters about the GOP's last-minute anti-Clinton ad blitz. By David Corn Oct. 29, 1998 The mother of all elections Can the favorite daughter of the Christian right knock off the feminist senator in tennis shoes? By Lori Leibovich Oct. 28, 1998 Power play A California ballot drive tries to short-circuit a utility industry bailout. By Harvey Wasserman Oct. 27, 1998 Favorite Son Can Asian-American voters boost Republican Matt Fong's sagging Senate campaign? By William Wong Oct. 27, 1998 Backlash '98? After dreading November's elections, some Democrats now believe they will benefit from an anti-impeachment voter rebellion. By Joan Walsh Oct. 22, 1998 The canary The fate of New York Sen. Alfonse D'Amato might hinge on how strong the toxic blowback is from Capitol Hill's impeachment stink. By Joe Conason Oct. 20, 1998