Monday night, a number of UF students, myself included, had the pleasure of hearing former White House press secretary Jay Carney speak at the University Auditorium.
Carney shared his multitude of enlightening experiences from his work as a journalist, covering the fall of Communism in Moscow and emotionally trying events like the Newtown shooting. As the second White House press secretary recruited from the world of journalism since Watergate, Carney entered his position with high expectations to fulfill.
Like his former boss, Carney has a reputation for evenhandedness, keeping cool and collected in some of the most challenging moments of recent years. Carney’s most potent piece of advice was to keep free from cynicism.
“Cynicism is a cop-out,” Carney said, before going on to tell inspiring stories of moments that contradicted the perception that everyone in Washington, or at least the White House, is there for no reason other than blind ambition. The most lurid example he gave was of a time President Barack Obama reminded weary staffers that their jobs were grueling but that they were also at the point where they could do the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
For a while, it was downright peachy. Then it was time for questions — when things became decidedly less peachy.Not that anyone, least of all Carney, got angry or combative. Quite the contrary; the discussion remained civil at all times.
Certainly part of this was because of the Accent Speaker’s Bureau policy regarding questions — one per person. However, the discussion was fairly unproductive in large part due to Carney’s impressive ability in using wordplay to dance around and deflect controversial questions. This kept the crowd’s collective feathers unruffled, a smart move on his part. While he has his own reputation to worry about, his six months out of office haven’t put quite enough distance between him and the administration just yet. In many ways, his actions still speak for the White House.
This was all too obvious in his responses to questions about the Edward Snowden leaks and from each side of the Israel/Palestine debate. They were the same responses he would have given if he were press secretary. Saying Snowden should place his confidence in our justice system while making a dig at Russia, delicately tailoring his responses to Israel/Palestine questions to the positions of the askers, while reminding everyone that the U.S. can’t do anything before both sides agree.
Throughout this spectacle, I found it difficult to escape the suffocating irony. A man who still toes the White House line six months after leaving office is brought here by an organization dominated by a single fraternity and tells us not to be cynical. Pray tell, what reason do we have not to be cynical?
The airwaves are clogged with fear-mongering headlines about Ebola and the Islamic State, leading us directly into Iraq War III. Meanwhile, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, a man who has been dropping barrels full of explosives on his own people, gets a pass because he doesn’t yell “Allahu Akbar!” when he does it. Washington, D.C. is engaged in a petty war of attrition as officials protect the interests of those who, thanks to Citizens United, donated money to their successful campaigns. Locally, we’re about to elect our next governor in a contentious race. One candidate is a Republican who invoked the Fifth Amendment 75 times in an insurance fraud deposition. Not even the president himself is safe. The hope and idealism of his 2008 campaign seems completely naive in retrospect, having been reduced to a punchline by our political reality following his inauguration.
But we shouldn’t let cynicism lead us to the point of apathy. Although it can help keep us from getting duped by the guile of those who seek and maintain their own power, rampant cynicism can be just as pernicious. In this respect, Carney was right. We’re fortunate enough to have a margin of choice insofar as who among a pack of ambitious political animals sits in a public office. Every so often, we may even be lucky enough to elect somebody who truly has our best interests at heart.
Alec Carver is a UF journalism sophomore. His columns appear on Thursdays.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 10/30/2014]
