elections have always been about a cult of personality. we know that force of presence and honeyed words have frequently won the day. why did kennedy beat nixon? why did reagan beat carter? why did clinton beat bush? etc. a very well presented cult of personality plus some nods toward the issues, and voila, you have a president. this has always been the case, i think, since washington essentially abdicated the throne of american king. that 1800 election is notorious for vicious mudslinging, and it has not stopped since then. but i believe that we are entering an era of impossibility. media is so overwhelming and ever present that any candidate, to include those in this election and those in subsequent presidential elections, is ******. and, as such, we are ******. nobody has lived a perfect life. no one. everyone has made a mis-statement or been a complete dumbass or said or done something that they later regret. i have. you have. we all have. mccain left his wife for another. yes, she was borderline crippled, but no one likes to talk about the fact that he still is borderline crippled himself. yet, it is still a talking point for democrats. obama went to a church with a (in my opinion) deeply flawed but passionate minister. but no one likes to talk about the fact that the man he knew behind the cloth was not the man of the cloth in front of the church. everyone has close friends and family members that are intensely embarrassing in public at times. i could go on and on and on, but the crux of my post would be lost in the same silliness that i'm attempting to decry. my overall point is that the everpresent media is destructive to our society. not only for politics, though that is the thrust of this post, but for our civilization at large, i think. no famous figure of any kind can really do anything without it being photographed, placed on the internet for massive public consumption, probably photoshopped at some point, and generally beaten into the ground. in the same vein, no famous person can really say anything of any meaning. i really mean this. parsing has become the watchword of election politics. yes, i know that this has always been the case, but i sincerely believe that in this day of wanton information and blogs and cable news pundits and every other source of information, that, paradoxically, the intended message for so many candidates is parsed and reduced to the point of essential parody. even further, candidates run from saying anything meaningful, instead seeking refuge in vagaries and generalities as a blanket to insulate themselves from the parsing and destructive force of our popular media. and, to be completely honest and cynical, i do not blame them. who could? look at this forum. look at yourselves. why in the world should they take a VERY hard stance and stick to it. what is the reward? usually the reward is marginalization or the loss of an election, because of the recalcitrance of the american voting public. we do not like people who state what they will do, and then ******* TRY to follow up. we allow our representatives and our senators to suck the massive cock of special interests, and why? because maybe ONE of the 25 or so special interest groups of our particular candidate of one of two parties is aligned with something that we find important. money in politics has always dulled willingness of our representatives to give a **** about us. it has come to the point that the american voting public has been willingly reduced to the tmz's and perez hilton's of the world. i sincerely believe that this is what the american public wants. we want to pick up a usa today at the airport and read snippets of news with no real depth or substance. we want the cool, crisp, soulless marketing of obama, or the jingoistic, over emoting marketing of mccain. either way, the siren call of feeling catered to via marketing is a very powerful narcotic. it is present on this forum, and it is very present throughout most political discussions in this country. we don't want issues. we do not seek education. we want that cult of personality. we want to be told what is wise instead of seeking wisdom internally. we NEED direction. we NEED the two party system because it allows us that tribal feeling of us vs them. and the best part is that none of us give a **** about issues. we don't. we pretend to, but we don't. in the end we know that things are going to go the way that things are going to go, and we're going to do our ******* damndest to survive it, and we know that we probably are going to be fine. we know that we can pick up a six pack for the game, even if we can't afford to go, and we know that there are going to be a lot of like minded individuals who will be sympathetic to our plight, who probably share it, and who probably share our "who gives a ****?" world view, and are still getting by on rice and chicken.
What a great post. Regrettably. For once, I'd like to vote FOR a candidate, rather than against one. It looked for awhile like this year was going to be the year for that, but no longer. Your post was thrillingly nonpartisan, so I will leave this post that way, too. I think a lot about what it would be like to try to start a groundswell of support for real, bonafide change in our system. I have come to believe that people truly don't want it. They don't want it because they want to be at the top, or to benefit from those whom they place at the top. The "system" is seductive that way. People believe in the lottery. The American dream is horribly seductive -- how many people born in poverty these days actually reach the top? Not many, but you can't take away the dream from those people at the bottom. It's part of what sustains them, and this in turn is what sustains our American system. Here lately I think that the very rich in this country are playing with fire. I don't know what the future holds for them, but if things turn bad economically, real bad, they are in deep shinola. I believe in virtue. I like to believe that virtuous people will succeed and bring success to this country. I think I will continue to be disappointed. Regrettably.
That's sad but very true. And I agree about people not really wanting to know about the issues. I taught government for years, and taught that you cannot sustain a representative government without an educated populace. I think that's where we are, and I don't see anything changing anytime soon.
Agree with this post completely. As a result, this is the reason, I think, that 2 of the 4 players on the major tickets are very inexperienced. People with experience get hammered by the media. For those with limited experience, non-impoertant issues are manufactured to see if something might stick.
Can't argue with a word you said, but would just like to add some of the bottomless well of wisdom that is Jerry Jeff Walker: "Just gettin' by on gettin' by's my stock in trade Living it day to day Pickin' up the pieces wherever they fall Just letting it roll, letting the high times carry the low I'm just living my life easy come, easy go"
What a great post. It was enough to get this long-time lurker to register and post. I've rarely read published articles this well-thought out and relevant. Kudos
