USD Magazine, Spring 1995

More than 2,000 years ago, the Greek philosopher Aristophanes said, "Under every stone lurks a politician." In our own coun– try, those running for public office have historically fared no better. From today's late-night TV monologues back through the time of Mark Twain - who once noted that "It could prob– ably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress" - politicians have long suffered the wrath of the public. Some political scien– tists believe the last election, and the experiences of Molly Lamb and John Schilling, are merely one more chapter in the always-tenuous relationship between public servants and those whom they are elected to serve. "Trust in politicians is not necessarily at an unprecedented low; the difference is you hear more about it today through the media," says Ben Haddad '80 (J.D.). Haddad, who recently became chief of staff for San Diego Mayor Susan Golding, worked for California Congressman Bill Lowery for 10 years and also was a deputy cabinet secretary for California Gov. Pete Wilson. He notes that the media often make assumptions about politicians and their constituents based on polls. "Polls can be deceiving because they lump all politicians together," he says. "A person may condemn Congress as a whole but have great respect for individual politicians." "We have always had ambivalent feelings about Congress," says Noelle Norton, a USD politics professor who specializes in the study of that body. "I don't think this election indicates a major crisis in confidence in our government. If the Republicans are voted out again in two years, that would be something very different. But that's not likely to happen." Norton's belief that the Republicans will remain in power for a period of time is shared by many political scientists, who note that politics follows a cycle, with periods of conservatism and liberalism alternating throughout the country's history. Pat Drinan, USD's dean of arts and sciences and a long-time politi– cal scientist, says that large shifts in the power structure - called realignments - have happened twice in the last 100 years, and that many political scientists believe the 1994 elec– tion is simply another realignment that appeared later than expected. "One such realignment occurred in 1896, when the Republicans captured the presidency as well as both houses of Congress, and the Democrats did the same in 1932," Drinan says. "These were 36 years apart, so one would have expected another realignment in 1968, but the Republicans only gained the presidency while the Democrats held on to Congress. Last year's election seems to be this overdue large realignment, but it won't be finished unless the Republicans gain control of the White House in 1996." Drinan believes that historical realignments do much to improve voter moods, no matter which party dominates. The result of one party controlling the executive and legislative branches of government is usually that more legislation is passed, and voters see concrete evidence of action. Thus, one explanation for the growing surliness of the public over the past 25 years is that the realignment was so long in coming. "In order to rebuild trust in government, politicians have to show solid results," Drinan says. "They need to be doing some– thing, showing coherence and success in policy-making. This

E3 t happens fast in the world of politics. Your boss gets voted out of office, and you're out of a job. Molly (Bowman) Lamb '87 knows exactly what it feels like. After a year working as a field representative for California congresswoman Lynn Schenk, a Democrat from San Diego's 49th District, Lamb fell victim to what some have called one of the angriest electorates in the his– tory of American politics. After one term, Schenk was voted out of office last November, and Lamb was looking for work. Lamb has been through this before. Prior to working with Schenk, she volunteered for Peter Navarro in his unsuccessful bid to become mayor of San Diego and for Jerry Brown, who campaigned for but failed to secure the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992. Schenk's defeat, however, was a harder blow, as Lamb found it difficult to reconcile the congress– woman's accomplishments with voter perceptions. "Lynn Schenk accomplished a great deal as a freshman mem– ber of Congress, but the message of all her accomplishments didn't get through," Lamb says. "People were angry with Congress, and they voted their anger." John Schilling '86 agrees that voters were angry. This time, his party was the beneficiary of that anger. As director of oppo– sition research for the Republican National Committee, Schilling helped engineer the wave that swept Democrats out of office in the 1994 election and gave control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives to the Republican Party for the first time in 40 years. But Schilling believes that if his party doesn't deliver, voters should - and will - just as unceremo– niously give Republicans the boot two years hence. "Republicans were elected to do certain things the public wants," says Schilling, who recently left the RNC to become deputy chief of staff for newly elected Congresswoman Andrea Seastrand of California's 20th District, which includes Santa Barbara. "If we don't do them, the voters ought to throw us out." Lamb and Schilling learned that in politics, one must quickly become indoctrinated to the ways of voter discontent. In the last election, that discontent appeared to have reached a fever pitch. Last year, a cover story in Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, the pre-eminent journal on Congress, noted that "Many politicians have winced as voters' views of Congress have grown ugly in recent years and hostility toward the institution has become part of the warp and woof of American political life." Polls taken before and after the Nov. 8 election tell us that the public's confidence in politicians is at an all-time low and that few people trust the government. But political scientists aren't so quick to believe that voter disen– chantment as expressed in the last election is anything surpris– ing or new, and history shows they might be right.

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