Oregon has only seven electoral votes to offer in a presidential election, and it shows by the way candidates rarely visit. Vice President Al Gore, who came to the state Friday, didn’t even talk about issues important to the state when he was here but instead focused on a Social Security discussion to a crowd at Portland Community College. To recognize the importance of Oregon voters, Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush should show up and talk about the issues Oregonians care about.
Gore continued to beat his dull drum by talking to an invitation-only, supportive audience about the need for a safe retirement program. While that’s a perfectly valid political stance, and one hopes presidential wanna-bes have clear visions for such important social issues, it would seem obvious that there are other, more pertinent topics for state voters and college students. Gore should have the integrity to speak honestly to the needs of the audience he faces. Though he touched on the topic of higher education and the need for better funding, the main topic of his argument was the need to shore up the retirement program.
Oregon has its fair share of hot topics that deserve comment by presidential candidates, and it is rather disrespectful for Gore to speak to a national script instead of talk to the needs of state voters. On Oregonians minds are issues such as assisted suicide, environmental concerns and medicinal marijuana. Bush and others have criticized Gore for not taking a stance on environmental issues such as dam breaching, claiming that the vice president is politically waffling. To ignore such local concerns is to take the state for granted or, worse yet, to not care at all about the state’s voters because the seven electoral votes are often inconsequential. And for Gore to give his nationally scripted speech to a supportive group who deserve to hear more about the vice president’s stance on state concerns betrays the trust between politicians and the citizens they represent.
While some leadership on the national agenda should be demonstrated by presidential candidates, there is no acceptable reason to skip over important local issues. Obviously candidates don’t want to jeopardize nationwide voters on stances they may take here, but that is a political dodge and not an acceptable out for those who want such an important duty. The original point of political debates was to let voters choose candidates based on their views of the world, as opposed to the modern trend of candidates choosing voters and forming their opinions based on that polling data.
All this discussion about Gore’s insensitive vote is not to let Bush off the hook. The Republican hopeful hasn’t even come to the state yet, and his plans to arrive have only been loosely set for May 16, the deadline for state primary ballots. Candidates should take the state seriously enough to give firm plans whenever possible, giving voters the opportunity to perform their civic duty to make an informed vote.
We all must live within the reality that Oregon is, and will be, a small state with few electoral votes. But that doesn’t excuse politicians from coming to our state and discussing the important issues that voters care deeply about. Nor does it excuse them avoiding positions on those issues in the name of political expediency.