Thoughts on Political Parties: Voters Must Fix Broken ASUC

Men often act like certain smaller birds of prey, in whom there is so much desire to pursue their prey to

which nature incites them that they do not observe another large bird, which is above them about to kill."

Machiavelli's words explain how the ASUC has lost its call and betrayed its purpose.

This year, the university administration has exercised its power to close the lines around the ASUC's

authority because the ASUC can no longer govern itself well. Many officials in the ASUC are proudly

consumed with the lust of defeating their political

enemies.

Their attention on such small prey diverts their attention from the purpose of the ASUC's existence. Such

zeal has shipwrecked what could be a great organization. Therefore, this week, the student body must call

the ASUC back to its foundational reason for being. If we will not, no one will.

The ASUC has become populated by tenant politicians who treat it like a rental car: abusing it to its

functional end and then abandoning it to the next user. In my two terms as senator, I have personally

witnessed service replaced with graft, excellence with corruption and humility with arrogance. Officials

spend the campaign season crafting a fiction of promise and possibility only to enter the association and

be overwhelmed by strife and faction. Some officials steal from the ASUC to finance their personal and

narrow self-interest. Many resign themselves to quiet conformity, afraid to admit how fallen it is. A few try

to fight against the descent but turn back when they see how steep the slope is. Many senators do not

know their own rules and laws, nor do they care to learn them. Their particular will is enough to govern.

The law is an inconvenience, and duty is merely a theory. Today, the ASUC is governed by power

philosophy, and the ends have justified the means for too long.

But who is to blame? In a monarchy, when the state is ruined, the king is overthrown. But in this

democracy, if the ASUC is fallen, it is because we, the people, have permitted its fall. Popular sovereignty

means that you and I have the ultimate responsibility. In this critical hour, who among us will serve?

Here is the bottom line: Berkeley students have the power to redefine the ASUC. We are empowered to

reshape our association by electing excellent leaders who honestly and selflessly serve beyond reproach.

We must hold the ASUC accountable because it will not discipline itself. How can we be surprised that many elected servants are in office to do favors for the few? Only the few

are voting for them! If we vote at the polls as a body, everything will change. And everything must

change.

There was a time when leaders with vision, experience and drive were chosen to model student

excellence, lift up the lifestyle of students by improving the quality of their education and advance the

association by expert management. Such leaders are elsewhere, driven off by the Mad Hatter's tea party

that has become the ASUC. But does the UC Berkeley student body have the character and will to stand

against the collapse of fine leadership? Are there champions among us, the most excellent of campus

leaders, with the humility to seek the rebirth of vigor in a potentially great organization?

You have the answers to these questions. The life and death our association begins and ends with you.

Your collective voice can call the ASUC back to life. Will you speak?

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