As I watch the current barrage of negative campaign ads, political attack dogs and media cynicism toward George W. Bush and Dick Cheney during the Republican convention, I long for the days when politics were practiced with civility and good taste.

My criticism is not specifically directed at the Democrats, although I do think they’ve gone overboard in their efforts to put Vice President Gore ahead in the polls. Yes, the Democrats have been particularly nasty, but the same type of sniping and character assassination will undoubtedly be lobbed at Gore and the Democrats during their convention in Los Angeles.

It all makes me nostalgic for the grace and civility that former Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter brought to the political process.

I never met former President Carter, but I have enormous respect for him, his charitable activities and the integrity he brought to politics. And during the 1970s — the Watergate years — when I worked on Capitol Hill as a press aide to a Congressman from western Montana, I had the opportunity to watch from the inside as House Minority Leader Gerald Ford of Michigan helped guide Republican members of Congress through some tough times. He did so with dignity, civility, integrity and a tremendous sense of fairness.

Although I didn’t agree with Ford’s decision to pardon President Richard Nixon, I understand why he did it and respect the fact that he put his political future on the line to heal a nation — a move that ultimately cost him the presidency.

Despite their disparate political beliefs, Ford and Carter conducted the 1976 presidential campaign with a degree of civility that is sorely lacking today. We need to restore that civility if we are to regain public confidence in our political system. When it comes to politics, many Americans have become so turned off they no longer vote.

The ratings-conscious television networks no longer televise the national party conventions — only the candidates’ acceptance speeches. They wouldn’t dare pre-empt a re-run of MASH for a speech by George W. Bush or Al Gore because the public would scalp them.

Blame it on political spin doctors, President Clinton’s indiscretions, Jay Leno’s off-color jokes or the media’s need to rip apart public figures, but the fact remains there is a crying need for civility in Election 2000.

(Editor’s Note: Don Brunell is president of the Association of Washington Business, Washington state’s chamber of commerce. Visit AWB on the Web at www.awb.org.).