Standing up to negative campaigns

By Editorial

Between 1970 and 1974, a domestic terrorist organization known as the Weather Underground claimed responsibility for a dozen bombings around the country.

The John McCain campaign has recently attempted to link William Ayers, a former Weather Underground leader and now a professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, with Barack Obama.

While it is true that Obama and Ayers both served on the board of an anti-poverty group known as the Woods Fund of Chicago, and that Ayers contributed $200 to Obama's Senate re-election campaign in 2001, the charge that Obama fraternized with a domestic terrorist is more than far-fetched.

In 2000, McCain's hopes for the Republican presidential nomination were derailed by a whisper campaign falsely alleging that he had a secret African-American child.

It's amazing how smear can affect politics. As any observer of the democratic system has likely concluded, smear campaigns are an unfortunate element of American elections. We see smear on the news, in attack ads, in our tabloids and in our communities.

This simply detracts from the issues and the real qualifications of the candidates.

And occasionally, when smear starts to surface between our friends and associates, it becomes personalized into rumors that serve to alienate and hurt those affected.

That our national politicians seem unable to avoid the temptation to run the names of their political rivals through the mud should not legitimize smear campaigns to members of our student body.

The Santa Clara community, while certainly not above human vice, should hold itself to a higher standard.

While politicians try to win our hearts and minds by making us fear or question their foes, we need to remember that the values Santa Clara instills in its students demand dignity.

In the last few weeks, we've seen the presidential election devolve into a mud-slinging contest, with both sides seeing just how much they can ruin the opposition before the American public decides the victor.

And for those who will miss it, it will only be four more years to see the party attack machines roar back into action.

American politics are as much about alienating the opposition as gaining popular support.

We at Santa Clara have a community full of intelligent, independent thinkers. It is unfortunate when members of this incredible community smear others. The whisper campaigns that run through our campus, whether through word of mouth or online, are just as harmful as those that affect our national politics.

The allegation that Obama has been 'pallin' around with terrorists is certainly false, but how many Americans will fall into McCain's trap and believe it? If people believe rumors without exploring the context of a situation, we let the rumor mongers and mud-slingers win.

Just as we point out mudslinging at a national level with ease, we should also call attention to character defamation that is occurring in our own campus community.

If we don't challenge the rumors that are spread about people on campus, we damage the credibility of ourselves and others.

While politicians are public figures lobbying for a few votes, we are real people whose lives will actually be affected. Don't stoop to their level.