Profs write campaigns 'not evil'

Two political science professors collaborated to publish a book to prove that presidential campaigns are not evil, just uncivil.

The "Encyclopedia of Presidential Campaigns, Slogans, Issues and Platforms" is planned as a reference on political history of presidential rhetoric and campaigns for college undergraduates and high school students.

"My intent was to help young people without a familiarity with presidential campaigns to get interested in elections," said Robert Roberts, coauthor of the encyclopedia.

Roberts and Scott Hammond spent more than two years working on the book.

"I had been looking forward to writing this for quite some time," Roberts said.

Hammond said they had to cut 10,000 to 12,000 words from the book in the editing process, but easily could have written more on the extensive subject.

Hammond said that he and Roberts wrote the book together because they "shared concern over what seems to be a lack of general knowledge among younger students regarding political history."

The book presents an upbeat view of politics because it sheds a positive light on campaigns instead of a negative one, according to Roberts.

"Campaigns are not fun anymore," Roberts said. "They used to be social events
that included the whole community."

He explained that campaigns now are more impersonal. "Now with the media the way it is, campaigns are fought over airwaves and people aren’t involved anymore," Roberts said. "The voters are bystanders."

Roberts described the current presidential campaign as "nasty and uncivil."

He said that people should hold campaigns accountable for what they say and shouldn’t accept what is said as the truth.

Roberts said that he is speaking because last spring he was approached by members of OrangeBand who were interested in learning about political debates.

"What is important is that we can have civil discussions," Roberts said. "In the past, we have had very heated campaigns, but they were always civil."