Of Politics and Change

Do elections change society? The idea that they do is the very foundation of Senator George McGovern's campaign against Richard Nixon. But the notion is chimerical, according to Journalist Garry Wills, author of Nixon Agonistes; elections merely ratify social change, he insists, they do not create it. In the current issue of the Center magazine, Wills observes: "Cultural change is supposed to come about through our democratic political system. That is a lot of nonsense. Insofar as changes occur, they occur between elections ... when a lot of people take stands on issues and when politicians then find they can introduce some of them into legislative action. Then the politicians get a retrospective vote of approval (as Roosevelt did in 1936) or disapproval (as Johnson did in 1968)."

Says Wills: "The way to change things is to work outside the Government." Wills argues that "people who start out as 'freaks' generate change --Martin Luther King starting the bus boycotts, the teachers and students who began the first antiwar teach-ins on Viet Nam, the first woman suffragettes." The most conspicuous contemporary example: Ralph Nader. "What is so good about Nader is that he does not run for political office," says Wills. "This country would have a lot more Ralph Naders if we did not constantly drum into people's heads that the most useful thing they can do for their country is be elected its President."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.