Political analyst avoids issue of Clinton

By Jennifer Kelleher
Staff Writer

Despite the current political situation surrounding President Clinton, political and economic analyst Kevin Phillips did not provide his opinions on the subject. Instead, his speech focused on who is influential in politics and what role people play in the government at Tuesday night's Spectrum Performing Arts and Lecture Series.
"I will not talk about Clinton being the first president to get blown out of office," Phillips said, generating applause and laughter from a packed audience in Bovard Auditorium.
Phillips is known for his predictions of major political and economic trends. In the 1960s he predicted the coming of a conservative era which was written in his book, "The Emerging Republican Majority." In 1990, he wrote "The Politics of Rich and Poor," which predicted today's populist resurgence.
Most of the audience consisted of freshmen who attended to fulfill a requirement for a writing course. Phillips suggested that in order to write about politics, students should try to understand it first.
"Politics can seem overwhelming," he said. "It's about who has the influence and how to put it into something you can relate to, maybe write about."
His experience comes from being an administrative Congress assistant from 1965 to 1968. He also served as special assistant to the attorney general in 1969.
He considers himself a "cynical commentator of political leaders," and said that there are more layers between the people and the government at the national level than at the local level.
"At the local level, there are one to two interest groups that control everything," he said.
He also spoke about popular voting trends, which have changed drastically over the last 150 years. He noted that with advancements made in women's rights and racial equality, the turnout of white men has dropped compared to a time in American history when white men were the only voters.
"There's an enormous fluctuating pattern of who participates and who doesn't," Phillips said. "When women first got the voteŠnot a whole lot voted."
Today, this is reversed. In the 1996 presidential elections, 51 percent of the voters were women while 48 percent were men, he said.
Phillips called this trend the "feminization of politics." He said that one of the main reasons why the percentage of male votes has dropped is related to the drop of the male work force over the last 20 years.
Phillips also said that he considers reform periods to be the time when people show more interest in voting.
"After a major national problem like a (stock market) crashŠthe number of people who vote tends to rise," he said.
Although Phillips spoke about a variety of issues, students who attended the event expected to hear more of his predictions.
"I've always been an admirer of his thinking ability to predict political trends, as well as economic," said Terry Player, a senior majoring in communications.
Some students were amazed by Phillips' perspective.
"The fact that feminization has such an increasing role in politics is interesting and makes me think (that) something is wrong with men these days," said Ryan Jarus, a freshman majoring in biological sciences.
"Follow your instincts and follow your history books," Phillips modestly advised students interested in politics. "The best thing is that you don't want to pay too much attention to people like me."