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Tackle the issues, Ross
The grassroots campaign to place H. Ross Perot on the presidential ballot shows both the best, and worst, of our democracy.
No one can argue that a campaign with such truly populist roots isn’t in the American tradition. It’s the same1 sort of independent spirit that led the Colonists to throw King George’s tea into Boston harbor and declare themselves independent of the English crown.
On the other hand, a cynical (or maybe merely realistic) assessment of Perot’s unannounced non-candicacy also produces questions, and some potentially disturbing possibilities.
Though he’s traveling the country, holding rallies and otherwise looking very much like a presidential candidate, Perot has yet to announce his intention. He seems to relish playing the same kind of tease that so infuriated Democrats when New York Gov. Mario Cuomo played the part last winter. Meanwhile, he has distracted the country’s attention from the two announced candidates.
Perot has also shown some reluctance to address the issues or to offer positions. He has even expressed the opinion that the people don’t care about the issues. That, we think, is insulting to American voters.
He has offered, as an excuse for his lack of positions on the issues, that the two msgor parties offer platforms and then proceed to ignore them after the elections. We don’t apologize for, or countenance, the seeming inability of the Democrats and Republicans to come up with workable solutions to the nation’s problems — but we certainly don’t think their irresponsibility is a good reason for Perot to take a similar tack.
Perot has demonstrated his talents as a businessman. But he wouldn’t be the first entrepreneur to find that running agovemment is another world. In business, when you run the company you call the shots. It’s your money, and if you win, you collect the profits. If you lose, it is you and your employees who suffer.
Government in a democracy is — quite literally — a different world. Ross Perot may be “a doer,” but he will still have to deal with Congress. And, as several recent presidents can testify, if Congress doesn’t like the chief executive’s ideas they can freeze his programs out like January in Alaska.
Whatever Perot’s populist favor, and despite the current low regard for the Congress, there’s no reason to believe that it would roll over and enact whatever legislation President
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