Everybody loves a party — but that doesn’t mean it’s the most effective way to get tasks accomplished. A recent Government of the Student Body Senate bill titled “Everybody Loves a Party” would allow GSB candidates to form political parties for campaign purposes, along with the option of straight-ticket ballots.

Clint Fichter, GSB election commissioner, had a valid point when he said in a March 31 Daily article that non-partisan elections are typically centered around name recognition, not political principles or issues.

Sophia Magill and William Rock had the savviest marketing skills of the recent candidates for GSB leadership, so now we get to Rock with Magill for an entire year. But truly, how would a party voting system (even without the brainless loyalty that inspires straight-ticket voting) make a campus government system more issue-based?

As politicians-in-practice, senators should see the effects of partisan politics on a city, state and national level. People say they are “Democrats” or “Republicans” with little or no real knowledge of what those words mean, or what the parties stand for — in many cases, people vote the way their parents did, or based on a single contentious issue.

Tell us how that’s any better than voting for the person with the most name recognition. Instead of personal name recognition, it’s party name recognition.

And is GSB an inherently partisan organization? Yes, senators disagree on certain issues — funding divergent student organizations is rarely a unanimous decision. But as GSB Senator Andrew Tugan said in the same Daily article, “The reason political parties exist in state and national elections is because there are two groups which have divergent views on the solutions to issues.

“Up to this point, no two factions of students have supported divergent views. To clarify the point, what are these political parties going to disagree on? Taxes? Gay marriage?”

Political parties in GSB would simply serve to divert attention from the true purpose of the organization, to work together for students. There’s no need to stratify the small differences in student government.

We agree that campaigns should be more issue-based. But that’s an issue that should be addressed by the senate and election committee — and it’s hard for debates to appear “issue-based” when the moderators waste the first 45 minutes with personality questions, as happened in the second GSB president/vice-president debate at the M-Shop.

We were glad to learn that most of the candidates love Dr. Seuss books. Seriously, it warmed our hearts. But if that’s GSB’s idea of an issue-based debate, political parties are the least of their worries.