Elections are supposed to yield the best leaders for our country – at least, that is the foundation for which our political system is fundamentally based on. When our Founding Father’s drafted the Constitution, it was fathomable that a citizen of sufficient education and means could literally know all the information the media reported about a specific candidate.

Today, the amount of information being thrown at the electorate every hour is more plentiful than all the information about a candidate you could obtain during the duration of a 19th century election cycle. With so much coverage, why does the majority of the population demonstrate extraordinary apathy towards politics?

The ubiquity of coverage has made it a full-time job to become politically literate, so most people are only able to remember dramatic moments and well-argued points on Election Day. As a result, elections are no longer about having the best ideas and the skills to implement them, but about being remembered favorably on Election Day. And therein lies the problem with our current democracy. If the most important selection pressure we put on our politicians is the ability to win elections, than what we get are politicians who are very good at winning elections, but not necessarily good at anything else.

The failings of modern elections can be seen on a national scale and right here at Syracuse University. In the recent Student Association election, Boris Gresely, like today’s national politicians, only won because he is good at campaigning. At 10 p.m. Thursday night, he had a team going door to door in my residence hall begging the four or five students who had not voted to do so. He won by 196 votes, all of which were likely acquired during that last-minute sprint. Does winning an election prove he is the best candidate for the job? Not a shot! Perhaps Ivan Rosales or Duane Ford was the better candidate, but the only candidate modern elections select is the one who best campaigns. Do we want the best campaigner in office or the best leader? When framed like that, it should be an easy choice.

In order for democracy to work, elections must yield the most competent candidate. A candidate’s competence should be the reason people support them, not something that is determined post election. As a society, we must turn the focus back to competence instead of the ability to campaign.

Aidan Cunniffe
Whitman School of Management
Class of 2016