How people choose a candidate.
John Biewen, 9/25/96

Recent public opinion polls say voter interest in the presidential election is flagging. Americans show less interest in politics than voters in some other countries. Minnesota Public Radio's John Biewen reports on why Americans -- a nation of consumers -- don't like to shop for political candidates. 

((Sfx.. ambience, light hubbub))

At Warner's Stellian Appliance store in suburban St. Paul, the Germaines, a retired couple, study a row of refrigerators in careful detail.

((.42 Lady: "What do you think of this one in white, then, Steve? .."))

They inspect the various models for looks, size, energy efficiency, and, of course, price.

((2.48 Lady: "This is even more!"))

After a long look, the Germaines leave... their search for the right fridge unfinished.

((9.35 crossfade to outdoor ambience ))

The Germaines admit they're not meticulous researchers when it comes to voting. Steve Germaine says he doesn't pay much attention to politics anymore.

((14. "I did when I was younger, but I'm older now, kinda do something else now. But...I vote."))

We met other appliance shoppers who say they think hard about who to vote for... but the Germaines represent a large share of the U.S. electorate. According to a recent survey by the Pew Center for the People and the Press, only 48-percent of Americans said they'd given a lot of thought to the presidential election -- down 15-percent from the same point in the 1992 campaign. Voter turnout has been slipping since 1960 -- except for a small uptick in 1992, which most experts credit to Ross Perot's anti-politician campaign. Barely half of eligible voters bothered in the last two presidential elections.

((11.30 Dionne: "I think there is a disenchantment with public engagement of all kinds, but particularly with government."))

E.J. Dionne is a columnist for the Washington Post and author of "Why Americans Hate Politics." He points out the widespread disdain for politics is a recent development.

((9. "After World War Two people looked at government with considerable pride. And they said look, this is the government that helped us weather the depression, it's the government that won World War Two. And by the early 1960's interest in politics was very high and confidence in government was very high. We've gone through a whole series of events that have turned people off to politics, starting with Watergate and you can go through a whole series of things."))

Watergate, Vietnam, stagflation, a ballooning deficit, the perceived failure of the War of Poverty. Many voters have decided politicians can't do anything right. Some observers say the news media exacerbate that cynicism... by encouraging polarization among politicians, and emphasizing the horse race over real issues. Dionne thinks what's needed to win Americans back to politics is straight talk by candidates, and a stretch of good government. But some say it'll take much more -- a fundamental change in American culture.

((29. Sfx... street))

Listen closely to 22-year-old Leslie Benson -- another disaffected voter who reaches for the zapper when political news comes on.

(("If I'm not interested, which usually I'm not, I'll just flip it to the Nature Channel or something that does interest me."))

Benson voted in 1992, but skipped the 1994 election. She says she might vote this year... but only because of one issue that could affect her directly. She wants to go to school to become a pilot, but can't afford it. She heard President Clinton's promise to make higher education available to everyone.

((26. "Politics doesn't mean much to me except for the education factor. I just really want to go to school, that's why I would vote for Clinton this year."))

Leslie Benson openly talks about politics in the language of a consumer: What will she get in return for her vote? That, says Harry Boyte, is the problem.

((5.45 "Today politics is like selling toothpaste and conventions are like backdrops for commercials, and government itself has been redefined as customer service. That's a tremendous cultural problem. A real change in what we understand as democracy."))

Harry Boyte is co-director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the University of Minnesota ... and co-author of a new book called "Building America." He argues consumerism has permeated the national mentality since World War Two, and cheapened the relationship between voters and elected leaders. Boyte says Americans cared more about politics when government and citizens worked together to solve problems -- for example, in the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930's.

((15. "A pundit said once we get the government we deserve./ So I think part of people's anger at government or discontent is unease at who we've become as a people."))

Boyte says Americans will get excited about politics again when we re-discover what earlier generations knew: that democratic government is not something you buy, like a refrigerator, but something you make. soc.