The words in this column come difficult for me, as I have many friends and colleagues who are currently enjoying a momentous win with the Swamp Party.
And yet, the circumstances in which such a victory have been obtained compel me to speak out.
This year’s election was extraordinary, not only for the one-sided victory of one party over all other challengers.
For the first time in my experience at UF, the opposition was banned from contesting the presidency by none other than Swamp Party’s appointed supervisor of elections. To claim that the supervisor’s hands were tied by the rules of the system with no leeway in respect to the gravity of holding a contest for the most important positions within Student Government is false.
In addition to the contributions from Swamp’s supervisor of elections, further effort was required from all Swamp senators this past year in maintaining a system of rules that produces an inordinate burden on the average student from participating and contesting within SG.
Simple measures such as expanding online voting for students living off campus or even improving the efficiency of the absentee ballot process were blocked and denied by Swamp Party.
For some within Swamp, this was a difficult task as many measures surely felt right in their hearts but nevertheless felt wrong with the party.
As a result of Swamp Party’s actions — and inactions — Swamp succeeded in dropping student turnout by more than 2,000 from last year’s general election.
Faced with the lack of a meaningful choice for the most powerful positions in SG, it is easy to understand why many students stayed home.
In spite of all these developments, however, the worst part about all of this is that that some within Swamp will likely believe they have accomplished something praiseworthy — something they would tell their grandparents or put on a resume or job application.
Fortunately, there are a couple of positive things we can attribute to this election.
First, now that Swamp has effectively used the rules to implement a de facto one-party system on campus, we can finally dispense with the democratic pleasantries and talk about SG as it really is and not how it pretends to be.
Second, SG’s reputation was damaged in such a manner that elections have now become predetermined and meaningless.
Its status now contains more parallels with modern competitive authoritarian regimes than the U.S.
The mission of SG should now be clear: Reform before it is too late.
[Nicholas Knowlton is a Ph.D. candidate in political science and a former Students Party graduate senator. A version of this column ran on page 7 on 2/26/2014 under the headline “It’s time to stop pretending what Student Government is and isn’t"]
