Editorial: What Americans really want from their politicians

After the death of a major literary figure, it’s simply human nature to develop a new sense of curiosity regarding his or her work.

Now that a week has passed and the death of David Foster Wallace has started to sink in, his essay “The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys and the Shurb” seems even more insightful and powerful than it did when it was published (April 13, 2000, Rolling Stone).

For seven days prior to a Republican primary, Wallace hopped aboard the “Straight Talk Express” to profile John McCain’s run for president.

However, that pithy description does little to relay the scope of his 15,000-word piece. He uses this experiences from that week in hopes of explaining why voter apathy in a post-Lewinsky world had peaked around Y2K and whether or not McCain could help stem the tide.

“When McCain says ‘I run for president not to Be Somebody, but to Do Something,’ it’s hard to hear it as anything more than a marketing angle,” Wallace wrote. “Especially when he says it as he’s going around surrounded by cameras and reporters and cheering crowds ... in other words, Being Somebody.”

Obviously, this sentence has little to do with McCain. He could’ve written it about anyone running for president and the message would’ve remained the same.

While Wallace undeniably disagreed with most of McCain’s stances on key issues, he developed a unique personal appreciation for the man, especially given his horrifying experiences in Vietnam.

“There’s something underneath politics in the way you have to hear McCain, something riveting and unSpinnable and true,” Wallace wrote. “It has to do with McCain’s military background and Vietnam combat and the five-plus years he spent in a North Vietnamese prison, mostly in solitary, in a box, getting tortured and starved.

“He chose to spend four more years there, in a dark box, alone, tapping code on the walls to the others, rather than violate a Code. Maybe he was nuts. But the point is that with McCain it feels like we know, for a proven fact, that he’s capable of devotion to something other, more, than his own self-interest.”

By the end of the piece,Wallace is still unsure whether or not McCain is the “real deal” or if it’s still all a sales pitch. Is voter cynicism simply too overwhelming?

Eight years later, has the American political process changed? Well, yes and no.

Wallace’s subject remains in the spotlight, but the circumstances are drastically different.

In the midst of one of the most polarizing political campaigns in history, American voters have one vital request for everyone running for office:

Just don’t lie to us. Don’t tell us only what you think we want to hear. Political spin makes us dizzy, regardless of party affiliation.

Whether it’s McCain, Barack Obama, or any of the dozens of Southern Arizonans currently running for office, all we want to hear from each of them is the truth.

At times, campaign talk will dissolve into white noise. Americans are bombarded by an endless advertising assault every day. The only way for any politician to rise above it is through honesty.

As voters, it is our duty to tune out the relentlessly negative commentary or Internet smear campaigns and really listen to what is important.

It’s the only way to overcome cynicism in hopes of finding something real.

It’s such a shame Wallace can no longer write on this topic. His take definitely would’ve risen above the white noise.