When I was in my high school American history class, we read a book called “Profiles in Courage” by a guy named John F. Kennedy. You may have heard of him. In his book, Kennedy discussed U.S. senators throughout history who made courageous political decisions, much as the title suggests. I’m not talking about the kind of decision where you stand up and say “No new taxes!” to a hearty round of applause. To the contrary, these politicians often faced the choice between doing what was right and ever holding political office again. Many times they were never reelected, only to be recognized for their bravery by later generations. These senators were real public servants.
When I look at the campaign fliers for Student Government presidents and vice presidents, I see a lot of potential for real American public servants, too. Except I don’t mean “real” in the sense of those senators lauded in Kennedy’s book, rather “real” in the sense of “exactly what we’re accustomed to getting.” How often do you see a presidential candidate promise the moon (or in Newt Gingrich’s case, colonization of the moon) when anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of economics knows what they promise is impossible? Nobody will pay taxes, and we’ll all ride our unicorns to our jobs at Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.
When I look at the Student Government candidates’ platforms, I see an excess of these types of promises. I will give a few examples from this year’s platforms without naming candidates:
• “Lobby for drop date to be pushed back until after first exam.”
I wonder if it occurred to these candidates that the purpose of the drop-without-a-withdrawal date is to encourage people to drop classes in time to allow wait-listed people to join the class. If it’s after the first exam, why would anyone new join the class? You’d be making room for no one.
• “More priority point opportunities through student organization groups.” “Promote full-season football packages for freshmen.”
These crop up every year. While valiant, we need to realize that LSU Football Operations does what it wants. It’s their world, and we get to live in it for a handful of magical Louisiana Saturday nights. Other than that, some of the promises just display a fundamental misunderstanding of how priority points work. Last year I think someone promised to increase points for each home game, while this would have just diluted the effects of the miniscule points that our championship volleyball and track teams use to entice you to watch them. You get priority with LSU Athletics for supporting LSU Athletics. Since many of us are “poor” college students, we should be glad they don’t ask us to support them in the same way their non-student boosters do. Maybe this lack of understanding comes from our candidates spending their time in the Greek section rather than with the common folk. OK, that was a low blow. I’m jealous of your seats, Greeks!
I won’t speculate whether these promises are the result of intentional politicking or poor information. Maybe the candidates simply never asked anyone knowledgeable for opinions on the feasibility of their campaign platforms.
Don’t get me wrong. I harbor no ill will for my fellow students running for office. I’m glad they’re finding a way to be proactive about student affairs and budget cuts while people like me effectively do nothing. However, people like me vote in the elections. Consider my words more of a critique of the campaigning policies than the candidates themselves. Some of the ideas I read were better than the ones I listed above. Microwaves in vending locations, emergency contacts on Tiger Cards, the First Annual Taste of LSU – whatever that is, it sounds delicious – and extended study area hours are all excellent ideas. I try to save money by packing my lunch, and I would love to have more places to reheat it.
You get the point: They don’t have to be extravagant ideas, but they can definitely be inventive. Not too long ago, a candidate promised us a Redbox on campus, and guess what? There’s a gosh-darned Redbox in the Union now. If candidates focus on events and conveniences for the students’ benefit and drop unfeasible goals, I bet people like me will take notice. Who knows, maybe one day someone famous will write a book about their political efforts.
Kyle Barber
Geology senior
 
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