`Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past
three decades, has been a history
of replacing what worked with what sounded good.
-Thomas Sowell
I’ve been watching the American Presidential race with a sort of detached interest. It doesn’t directly affect me, I live in Canada but I do have a lot of American friends and it affects them and that concerns me.
Politics in Canada is a blood sport that is only mitigated by the fact that we still have a line called “too far” that politicians cross at their peril. Apparently that line doesn’t exist in the United States.
The rhetoric and campaign advertising for this presidential race is beyond the pale. It is not just personal and vicious; it has become dishonest with flat out lies. How a candidate for the highest office in the nation could possibly believe that they will be respected upon election after their degrading performance during the election completely escapes me and I still can’t figure out how “the people” are served by this.
This isn’t leadership; it is like watching pigs fight in the mud over slop. It is disgusting and demeans the office to which both candidates aspire.
The latest Obama Super Pac ad is the most distorted and flat out dishonest political ad I’ve ever seen. The attempt to connect the bankruptcy of a business to the death by cancer of the wife of a former employee five years later is a new low. It has been proven to be wrong on the facts and is a disgrace that degrades her memory for cynical opportunistic politics. Hearing Romney refer to the president as Obamamoloney and the president referring to his opponent as RomneyHood is simply childish and demeaning.
It is almost impossible to remember that these two men are actually campaigning to be the leader of one of the most powerful nations on earth. Neither have shown anything even remotely related to decency, dignity or leadership.
The problem with all of this is that it not only undermines the right of the electorate to make an informed choice and diminishes the office of president; it also treats citizens like they’re stupid. “Say anything and those idiots in the hinterland will believe it. They’re morons.”
That folks is what Mitt Romney and President Obama and their pollsters, spin doctors, media handlers and back room strategists believe. You’re an idiot and they set out to prove it every day with lies, evasions, half-truths and a complete lack of solid policy proposals because they believe you’re just stupid enough to buy into whatever they dance in front of you.
They believe that you are so tied to an ideology that all they need to do is play to your fears, your prejudices and your opinions and that will be enough. The undecided voters will get a little extra nudge in the way of some kind of promise or other but the committed base gets nothing but the disgraceful campaigning we are seeing now.
The funny thing is that only you can decide if you’re stupid or not. Only you can decide if you can so easily be led around by the nose that you’ll accept without question whatever is put in front of you as being truth. Only you can decide whether the cynics in each campaign are right about you and that you’re nothing but sheep who can be manipulated because you only believe what you’re told if it confirms you bias.
I see a lot of stuff on social media and to be quite frank, most of it is pretty discouraging. There is precious little critical analysis, independent research or thought being put into the opinions of most people. They pick up on the latest campaign nonsense put out by whichever campaign they support and pass it on like it came down from the mountain with Moses.
It didn’t. It’s snake oil that isn’t worth the price it cost to put it in front of you. And it has cost a lot. More than a billion dollars will be spent on this orgy of degradation, an obscene amount of money wasted at a time when so many are unemployed, living on food stamps and in the streets.
Americans, like voters in every country that has a democratic process, need to stop being the lackeys of the power elite and start thinking for themselves. It starts with asking yourself a simple question.
Do you like where your country is heading now?
If you can honestly answer yes, you like high unemployment, increased violent crime, out of control government spending and debt, politicians that lie to you and a growing sense of feeling unsafe in your own country, then by all means continue to support the status quo of electing people to office without demanding, and I mean demanding, change. According to the latest polls, however, just over 64% of Americans won't agree with you.
If you answered no to that question then it’s time to stop blindly supporting a candidate and to start challenging him or her to tell the truth. It’s time to tell them you aren’t interested in their opinion of their opponent, you want to know what they intend to do in office. In other words, it’s time to demand that political candidates tell us what they stand for and not simply what they oppose and then commit to making it happen.
It’s all well and good to support a candidate but if you aren’t prepared to evaluate him or her as objectively as you do his or her opponent; if you aren’t prepared to hold him or her to an even higher standard of integrity and service than you demand from his or her opponent, what’s the point? When you give the candidate you support a free ride by overlooking their failures and sins, you undermine your own vote.
The United States is in trouble, serious trouble. It faces a record deficit with no plan in place from either candidate to address it. The country is seeing increased random acts of brutal violence, anger, frustration, record unemployment and a diminishing influence globally. So far, there hasn’t been much come out of either the Obama or the Romney campaign to suggest how any of that will be resolved.
Is that really what you want from a president or any politician? If you answered, “Sure, why not?” to the question then you will deserve the government it gives you but four years from now, you’ll be reliving the same anger and frustration that is being live now.
I think arguing over tax returns when your country is facing record deficits is absurd. Worrying about the legitimacy of birth certificates when your country still has more than 40 million people without health care coverage is bizarre. People are being gunned down in temples, theatres and shopping malls while the political rhetoric focuses on the most inane and absurd issues as if they were important.
They aren’t. Leading the country and serving the people are what is important and quite frankly, feeding people lies, distortions and negative attack ads doesn’t serve the people at all. When you see someone like Caroline Kennedy who comes from one of the most staunch supporters of the Democratic Party come out publicly and accuse the presidential candidate of her party of being a liar, you know things have gone too far. It’s like the pope publicly criticizing St. Paul.
Elections are being held in many places right now, not just in the United States, but they all share one thing in common. They are all fueled by cynical politicians and their campaign strategists who treat you and I like were idiots. I don’t speak for anyone but myself but quite frankly, I’ve had enough of it.
I’ve had enough of being lied too, talked down to, pandered to and taken for a fool. Judging from the partisan nonsense I still see around on social media, there are still lots of people who haven’t reached that stage yet and I consider them to be as much a part of the problem as politicians.
I’ll leave it to you to decide where you stand.
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You are right on the money!
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you are not impacted directly. I work in Alberta as a consultant (not related to the oil industry). I have several projects now put on hold till November as they don't want to invest if Obama is re-elected. The belief is if Obama is re-elected that Keystone will not happen, and that the Embridge line won't happen either. It does not make for an attractive investing climate in Alberta.
ReplyDelete2013 could be interesting with a socialist south of Alberta and a borderline Marxist to the west. If, like me, you don't believe in global warming the option to ship oil to the arctic for shipment is not that attractive. I am a small company, but I need the big fish to prosper if I am to prosper as well.
As for the rest, I agree with you very strongly. Topics like voter lists are to me very important, but in terms of priorities, it is not the top of the list. The economy, consumer debt and the safety and security of America would be much higher for me.
We're all effected indirectly by the American election. My point was that it doesn't determine our political leadership. I have written about Presiden Obama's non-decision regarding Keystone and thought you might enjoy it.
Deletehttp://bearsrant.blogspot.ca/2012/04/fear-of-leading.html
I read that one previously. You put a lot of thought into your blog and I very much enjoy it. Please keep it us as I imagine it takes a lot of time and effort on your part.
DeleteFor Western Canada, the sale of Nexen, the various pipelines, the option of shipping oil by rail and of course, the election south of the border should make life very interesting.
My blog is a lot of work. Officially, I'm retired but this has become as time-intensive as any job I've ever had. But, it's worth because people like you take the time to read and consider what I've written, which I appreciate. It isn't important to me that those who come by my blog always agree with me. It is only important to me that they take the time to read my posts and then debate me with mutual respect. I've learned a lot in the last ten months.
DeleteThank you for your support. I appreciate it.
Bear; Succinctly and accurately put!!
ReplyDeletejack
Thank you. I only write what I believe which isn't always popular and sometimes I feel like I am swimming against the current but, it is what it is and I don't know any other way to swim.
DeleteThank you for your comment and for supporting my blog. I appreciate both.
Watched MSNBC yesterday and their panel and guest didn't even pretend to be objective. The whole topic was about how disgusting Romney was because he objects to Obama's undermining welfare reform that Clinton endorsed.
ReplyDeleteI was waiting for the race card to be played and sure enough, the moderator started talking about how racist this was, presumably because a lot of blacks are on welfare.
What I truly don't understand is how people who are so violently opposed to the things George Bush did when he was president turn a blind eye to President Obama doing the same things. If you exam the record closely, there is precious little difference in policy between the two. Only the arrogance and rhetoric are different and quite frankly, for all his flaws, the one thing Pres. Bush wasn't, was arrogant.
DeleteI find it truly disturbing that ideology has trumped common sense with so many.
I appreciate your comment and your support of the blog. Thank you.
Let's play what if, what if Obama is re-elected and what if all the things those against him have predicted he will do, he does them.
ReplyDeleteHow will the media react, who will they blame.
Oh, forgot, there will be no free media, or opinions allowed.
And what if this is the last election for many years.
Mary T.
Thanks to the internet American Politics has become an arena of extremes. Moderates are unwelcomed. Compromise is caving to demand. Pretty much what you're seeing is what "We the People" have come to believe is what we want. It is that which drives the political campaign ads on both sides.
ReplyDeleteWhen the healthcare debate was going on in Congress, the proposed free counselling on Advanced Directives suddenly became Death Panels because people didn't know what Advanced Directives are. I do because of my job in healthcare and because I had recently gone through the death of both of my parents. Mom in 2006, Dad in 2007.
No matter how many times I tried to explain to people what Advanced Directives was, it became DEATH PANELS because Sarah Palin said so. When it wasn't death panels it was "Killing Granny". Then there was all those signs held by Medicare recipients demanding that "government keep it's hands of my Medicare". Despite the insurance company Medicare Advantage programs, Medicare is a government run program. Which these people may lose if they elect Romney or give the Senate to the GOP.
It isn't that the politicians are treating people like they're stupid, the people are getting exactly what they demand. Politicians are pandering to their base, and the fact that they're getting elected should show who it is that's stupid.
Critical thinking went out the window on Sept 11, 2001. It's been replaced by hatred and fear.
I agree with your comments to the point that people have allowed themselves to look for simplistic solutions and labels for very complex issues. But it is more than that.
DeleteYou're right about what has happened since 9/11 but the seeds were planted long before then. People are afraid and they're angry and frustrated. They cling to ideologies in the absence of real political leadership and strong national strategies to move nations forward.
Politicians play on that fear. They don't offer real solutions, they offer bromides based on whatever their poll research tells them. They distort the truth, avoid the tough issues like gun control and health care while playing one group in society against another.
The people are only as good as their leadership. Strong leaders build strong citizens. That was clear during WWII. Churchill demonstrated a strength of character that united the people of Britain during the terrible air raids and bombings during the Battle of Britain.
People are not united now. They are divided, polarized and I blame politicians and their backroom boys for that.
we need to be concerned in canada. obama will destroy the u.s. economy with four more years. 80% of our trade is done with the u.s. a bankrupt u.s. is not going to buy much of what we sell them and that will have a serious effect on us. critical thinking is being done by conservatives and not the socialist democrats.
ReplyDeleteWe need to be concerned with the lack of political leadership in all democratic countries. There is an erosion of leadership, vision and integrity that will do far more damage than just the loss of trade between Canada and The United States.
DeleteIt's very simple to find out any matter on web as compared to textbooks, as I found this post at this web page.
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