Staying Informed During an Election Year [08-28-08]

Posted on August 28, 2008 by Buck Berry

Election years underscore the critical importance of a public that is well informed about major policy issues. A casual understanding of salient political issues is simply not adequate. A superficial understanding of public policy will do little to ensure that our diverse interests are represented equitably; it will not guarantee that our laws are drafted intelligently. A fleeting, cursory public understanding of policy will not encourage our public servants to hold fast to their obligations to meet crises effectively and to participate responsibly in international affairs.

Fortunately, an informed electorate has traditionally been recognized as a basic American political value. A hallmark of our democracy is that we have made the people “the primary control on the government,” to borrow a phrase from James Madison’s Federal number 51. Our governments—state as well as national—identify an informed electorate as an interest of vital importance and feature guarantees of free speech and of a free press in their constitutions. They have also enacted a wide variety of specific measures to assist the public in becoming fully informed about the operation of government and about the issues their governments address.

The Freedom of Information Act of 1966 was enacted specifically because “[a] democratic society requires an informed, intelligent electorate.” The 89^th Congress had recognized a need to rebalance the “right of the public to know” and the “need of the Government to keep information in confidence” in some limited circumstances.¹ The Freedom of Information Act has had a major impact in ensuring public access to governmental records. States have followed the 1966 Act and enacted their own freedom of information laws.

Federal statutes and regulations have also been passed that require broadcasters to provide reasonable access to the airwaves for “legally qualified candidate[s] for federal elective office.” The limits of such a provision, 47 U.S.C. §312, were tested when the Carter-Mondale Presidential Committee asked three major television networks to provide time—between 8:00 and 10:30 p.m. on any day from December 4 through December 7 of 1979—for a 30-minute documentary outlining Carter’s presidency. Under the law candidates enjoyed a discounted rate that even the most patriotic of television executives would prefer to dole out in 5-minute portions. The stations refused the Carter-Mondale Presidential Committee’s request and the FCC found they had violated federal law. The Supreme Court subsequently upheld the agency’s ruling.²

There are, of course, many more laws touching on education, transparency in governmental decision making, and so on, that, in their various ways, foster an informed electorate. This impressive foundation of constitutional guarantees complemented with specific laws does not, however, ensure the soundness of our democracy. Responsibility ultimately resides with the citizen to become informed, stay informed, intelligently discuss the issues and, ultimately, cast an informed ballot.

Of the many ways of becoming and staying politically informed, few are as convenient as regularly reading The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, or The Washington Post. These newspapers—having reasonably high editorial standards and reasonably comprehensive coverage of major issues—can easily be supplemented with Web-based news sources. The World Wide Web provides a fascinating opportunity to see the same issue covered by organizations with varying commitments to ideological and commercial interests. One can very easily explore how different news organizations—with varying editorial perspectives—deal with salient issues. When one, for instance, compares the coverage of an important issue on Fox News,³ MSNBC,⁴ CNN,⁵ and The Pacifica Radio Network,⁶ it immediately becomes apparent that Fox elevates entertainment interests over accurate and balanced journalism.

It is also desirable—in order to become educated on policy—to dig a little deeper than the news. There is a wealth of information published by governments on the World Wide Web that is directly relevant to policy. GPO Access⁷ provides information from the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the federal government. GPO Access, for instance, provides access to bills, statutes, and the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, all of which are valuable sources for examining the specifics of federal policy. For example, if one wanted to discover whether Representative Henry Waxman (D. Cal.) has taken a position on defense contracts, one could search the Congressional Record for the current Congress using a query such as: Waxman AND “defense contracts”. After reviewing a few search results one would see that Representative Waxman formulated an amendment to a bill entitled the Duncan Hunter National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009. Waxman’s amendment “requires agencies to enhance competition in contracting; limits the use of abuse-prone contracts; rebuilds the federal acquisition workforce; strengthens anti-fraud measures; and increases transparency in federal contracting.”⁸ While not every candidate is a member of Congress, a basic knowledge of the salient debates in Congress will allow you to analyze the statements of candidates in the context of those debates.

A useful non-governmental site called GovTrack⁹ will allow you to quickly check the status of federal bills, look at the voting records of members of Congress, or find information on members of Congress. Another useful tool is Regulations.gov,¹⁰ which includes proposed regulations that are open for public comment, final regulations (which are closed for comment), as well as related documents such as federal agency notices, supporting materials, public comments, and federal agency guidance & adjudications. Yet another source for policy information can be found in the reports issued by the Government Accountability Office.¹¹ The GAO carries out investigations on behalf of Congress. A search for information on our previous example, defense contracts, produces a 2007 report entitled “Defense Contract Management: DOD’s Lack of Adherence to Key Contracting Principles on Iraq Oil Contract Put Government Interests at Risk.”¹²

While few of us have the time to become policy experts, some specific knowledge of salient policy debates is an essential aspect of making an informed choice in the voting booth. The alternative is to cast a vote based on the superficial and dangerous grounds of ideology, candidate personality, or baseless assumption. Happily, basic policy research is inherently interesting and deeply enriching.

As the election draws near, readers may also want to consult some of the public opinion tracking sites, such as Gallup’s Political and Government site,¹³ the Roper Center’s US Presidential Election 2008 site,¹⁴ and KQED’s Election 2008, site¹⁵ which features an election map.

Notes

1. S. Rep. No. 813, 89th Cong., 1st Sess. (1965), reprinted at 1966 U.S.C.C.A.N. 2418, 2423, 2429.

2. CBS v. FCC, 453 U.S. 367 (1981).

3. Available at http://www.foxnews.com.

4. Available at http://www.msnbc.msn.com.

5. Available at http://www.cnn.com.

6. Available at http://www.election411.org.

7. Available at http://www.gpoaccess.gov.

8. 154 Cong. Rec. D657 (daily ed. May 22, 2008).

9. Available at http://www.govtrack.us.

10. Available at http://www.regulations.gov.

11. Available at http://www.gao.gov.