EDITORIAL: A refreshing take on politics

Maybe it’s time that those on the national political stage looked to see how they do it back home when it comes to deportment.

This has been a campaign season that’s the political equivalent to a brutally active hurricane season. Storms have raged, damage has been done, injuries have been inflicted, and even the moments of calm are filled with anxiety over what comes next.

The problem has been, we believe, the coming of an era of attention-grabbing. Rather than professing ideals and plans for moving toward them, candidates have decided the public is only interested in personality and style, not substance. They have adopted personas and have devolved into caricatures of themselves, creatures that literally scream for attention. And while it is always dangerous to disagree with the bard, we see no son of York on the horizon who can break the hold of our nation’s winter of political discontent.

Which was why Thursday evening’s Albany Civil Rights Institute forum for candidates seeking local and state offices in the May 24 elections was refreshing.

We were asked by ACRI Executive Director Frank Wilson to moderate the event, a live, unscripted meeting between voters and those running for office. Candidates for coroner, School Board, County Commission and Georgia House appeared before an overflow crowd in the institute’s classroom.

The determining factors for the success or failure of any forum are those on stage — the candidates — and those in the audience — their respective supporters and opponents, and those trying to decide. On the national level, these types of events have maintained a seething undercurrent on hostility and plain meanness.

At the local forum, however, we saw candidates focusing on why each was the best choice, on what he or she would bring to the job, and on specific issues of concern. In the event that a challenger brought up an issue with an incumbent’s performance, the criticism was addressed toward the work, not the individual. The audience was engaged and reacted, but everyone maintained a level of respect and civility that provided the opportunity to make good use of the First Amendment in perhaps its noblest form — political discourse.

It’s too bad that some of our national leaders were not in that Albany Civil Rights Institute classroom Thursday night. They might have learned a valuable lesson.

— The Albany Herald Editorial Board