While Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama duke it out in the Democratic primary, the man who had potential to steal the election from either of them has kept himself just as busy.
Nobel laureate Al Gore spent his Valentine's Day at the U.N. advising Wall Street leaders and institutional investors to ditch businesses that are too reliant on carbon-intensive energy. He warned this high-profile business crowd, which the Wall Street Journal reports collectively controls some $20 trillion in capital, that if they don't abandon their "subprime carbon assets," they will face huge losses down the road.
On Tuesday, Gore was named recipient of the prestigious Dan David Prize for Social Responsibility with Particular Emphasis on the Environment, and he pledged to donate his $1 million prize to non-profits that seek solutions to the climate crisis. Gore's accomplishments this week are indicative of the hard work he's become known for, leaving the tens of thousands who petitioned for him to run to only dream of what might have been.
We admire a person who's chosen to steer clear of election hoopla to concentrate on making real progress, who realizes that one doesn't need to occupy an elected seat to motivate the masses and effect crucial policy change. But at least America's still got two excellent candidates vying to take the White House this year - that's right, two candidates.
Here at UT, there's a politically active go-getter who reminds us a bit of Gore. Government junior Zack Hall, who steered SG's tax-free textbook campaign toward unanimous Senate approval last May, began organizing an SG campaign last September, but says he suspended efforts because he couldn't compete with the financial resources and organization of presidential candidate Keshav Rajagopalan's Empower juggernaut. Rajagopalan and vice president hopeful Frankie Shulkin are certainly qualified candidates, but Hall's tax-free textbook campaign was the most accomplishment we've seen out of SG in years. On top of that, Hall was at the forefront of standing up for students when the Tuition Policy Advisory Committee (which had the support of current SG leaders), recommended that UT raise tuition by more than 15 percent. He helped organize the Tuition Accountability Coalition, which successfully called on the Board of Regents to cap tuition hikes and raise the payout of UT's multi-billion-dollar endowment.
Hall would have had our endorsement - hands down.
Unlike Gore, Hall's decision not to run for the highest seat has left students with only one qualified candidate to choose from, who's got a largely uncontested posse behind him. (We don't know if Rajagopalan's opponent, petroleum engineering senior Matt Li, is qualified, as he's failed to respond to the Texan's interview requests.) This situation points to the systemic problems within SG. When asked why he didn't run this year, Hall's response to The Daily Texan illustrates these problems clearly:
"While I would love to have challenged the current ticket, I came to the harsh reality that SG campaigns are not about ideas and representing students, but instead, blatant tokenism of groups on campus and resume padding." Hall said. "I refused to run simply because that would legitimize an illegitimate system. SG needs to get rid of the ticket system and substantially decrease the amount of money that students can spend on their campaigns - otherwise, it is doomed to remain an elitist system that is unrepresentative of the student voice."
We couldn't have said it better.
The 37 candidates who constitute the Empower ticket have reported spendings of $4,281.73 in this election of only seven uncontested races, and Rajagopalan said the ticket raised a total of about $7,000. That money has largely gone toward promotional items: Empower bought 1,500 t-shirts at $1.50 each (which adds up to about $2,250). They also spent about $500 on A-frame signs and $645 on 1,500 pens. Rajagopalan said he doesn't know yet how Empower's remaining thousands will be spent.
If an exemplary student with a record of success in SG can't beat the cronyism and cash-matching that is an SG election, then it looks even less hopeful that a qualified student with no roots in SG could ever have a chance at becoming part of it.
Gore has proven to be one of the most accomplished world leaders, even away from the White House, and we can likewise rest assured that Hall will still make progress away from SG, and he might even get more done without having to preen himself and put on a suit every week for SG meetings.
According to the Wall Street Journal Political market, which Wonkette.com describes as "a sort of fake stock exchange for dorks," there is an 11-percent chance that Gore could end up on the presidential ticket again as a running mate, even though he has said repeatedly that he never wants to go near the White House again. Maybe Rajagopalan could invite Hall onto his ticket and the two can work on reorganizing our broken Student Government so it can actually represent students democratically in the years to come. Or maybe Hall has better things to do.
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