 |
 |
What Do They Stand For???Falling to the glare This may be one of the most critical elections in modern times. With a war at stake, an economy that has finally roared back to life, and dozens of social issues that face America, you’d think our political parties have honed their message to razor-sharp commitments on every possible issue. And you would think the American voter would be rapt with attention, itching to pull that lever. In fact, the opposite is true on every front. The 2006 pollsters are following see-saw voting trends, struggling to predict which way political winds will blow in two weeks. Meanwhile, American voters change positions faster than Paris Hilton changes dresses. And for just about as many reasons. Can you blame them? Maybe. But we can point to an unexpected source: the media revolution. Think how we got here. In the old days, political parties took positions, and we read about them. We thought about them. We went to the park and listened to their speeches. And we debated with our friends over a beer and a backyard barbecue. But the communications revolution forced an unexpected revolution inside the political parties in unexpected ways. First, liberal Democrats infiltrated and took over the entire communications network in America. Combined, those great patricians told us how to vote. And we did. But cable TV exposed the awful fiasco of 60s socialism, and Democrats left in droves. Meanwhile, the cable, satellite and Internet media revolution pushed back the liberal media monolith, and the 90s conservative revolution followed. But 12 years later, conservative bloggers and e-magazines revealed Republican politicians had abandoned their frugal philosophy in apparent lust for the mainstream media spotlight. Now, Republicans find themselves flogging conservatives to the polls. So what do we have? Democrats were exposed as failures, and Republicans were exposed as spineless. Today, Democrats hide their positions on almost everything, pretending to be “moderate.” Otherwise voters run screaming in revulsion. Republicans, afraid of media criticism, became enamored with the very power they promised to eschew. And became “moderate” as well. They don’t even meet in the middle. They simply don’t do anything. And of course, they accuse each other of being extremists. And it’s all available on minute-by-minute commentary delivered by two dozen TV networks, thousands of radio stations, tens of thousands of bloggers and even that guy who does a local cable access show from his basement. Heck, you can even tune in to cable and internet networks of America’s sworn enemies. It’s not that the average voter has a flood of information. It’s more like a sea of misinformation. And two weeks before an election, the tide is coming in. Fast. Think of what we’ve seen in the past month. Weird sex-scandals. Mangled economic statistics. Lopsided war reporting. The Michael J. Fox fiasco. And so-called reporting that is insultingly designed to sway, rather than tell the truth. It’s small wonder that 12 days away from election, most polls show 20% undecided. Yet one blurb, and the voter responds, deserved or not. Good information or not. Lying or not. Why not? What else does the American voter have left? We can’t get a solid answer out of either party on any issue. Democrats whine, but have no solution. Republicans complain, but offer no direction. Does this open the door to a third party? Visit the next Libertarian convention. Have a seat, next to that guy with the tinfoil hat rolling a joint. In response, voters offer a paradox. We are jaded and passionate. We’ll believe anything and nothing. We have a deep-rooted conscience that can be swayed in an instant. We’ll pay rapt attention, or maybe not. And we’ll get angry if we don’t get our way. Essentially, the American voter has evolved into enlightened dolts. And our gutless political parties have led us into purgatory, via the glare of a 24-7-365 thousand-camera media, focused everywhere at once. And every politician fears the light. But we cannot blame the American media. After all, it’s really not hard to poke around and find the truth. And the media is simply a thousand conduits between politicians and the voter. It’s like the old philosophical question: if a tree falls in the forest, and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Heck, right now, nobody’s listening. There isn’t a decent tree left in the forest. And we can’t even tell which question to ask. Or who would answer.
|
|
Permission to reprint
Tom Adkins' article is granted to anyone Written by Tom
Adkins |
|
||||||||||||||||||
