Let me begin by openly admitting that I don't care for either of the major party candidates for the office of the President of the United States. I have written of my disappointment with both candidates in earlier blogs. They have both proven themselves to be people who would do almost anything to be elected President of the United States. It seems obvious to me that someone who will abandon his or her principles to be elected to an office is a person who will not be a person of character in that office. It is my opinion that if you are just crazy about either candidate you are either a deeply dedicated party person who just votes the party line or you just haven't been paying attention and have fallen for the slick marketing effort of one of the parties.
That said; I am "bipartisanly" irritated and offended by both campaigns. In the beginning month of the campaign, I was just irritated by the political commercials. Any student of the process knows that each commercial has just a nugget of truth in it. Not much; just a little tiny nugget. The rest of the commercial is designed to connect with the viewer (negatively) and elicit an emotional (not thoughtful) response. The commercials are millions of dollars spent to produce millions of pounds of meaningless bull. Since the economic collapse, the political commercials have taken an interesting turn. Suddenly each candidate is very interested in telling you and me, the voters, how much money his victory will put into my pocket. Candidate A will cut my taxes more than candidate B. These commercials offend me on several levels.
First, how amazingly stupid do they think I am to believe that a government official is going to ever cut taxes. I am offended. The reality is they may cut my personal income taxes. I doubt that, but it may happen. If the government's income is cut by my tax cut, that income will be made up in some one else's taxes going up. In most cases that will be big business because businesses are rich and can afford it. Guess what big business is going to do to make up for their tax increase? You have it; they are going to raise their prices. And, guess who is going to pay more for their product? Me. Thanks for the tax cut Mr. Magic Politician. Here is a radical idea for the government; spend less, cut programs, let me keep my money and allow me to decide how the money should be spent.
Second, how shallow do the candidates think I am? Pretty shallow, it would seem. They obviously think my vote can be bought. "Vote for me because I will give you more money. By that, I mean I will cut your taxes more than my opponent." That is just blatantly attempting to purchase my vote. That may not be voter fraud but it is pathetic. As a student of political science in college, I joined a group of students and other political activists traveling around to many polling places in eastern Kentucky and taking pictures of voter fraud. Votes were being purchased for $20 and a half pint of whiskey. At several polling places we were invited to leave – on our own or they would be happy to carry us away. It got ugly. Those involved knew that what they were doing was wrong. So how is that different than what is going on today?
During this campaign we are receiving offers to buy our votes on a huge, national scale and no one is blinking an eye. We have come to expect it. The electorate's motto seems to have become, "What are you going to give me to vote for you?" The economy is in the dumper so what do you expect the candidates to do? Not much. I am not naive enough to be surprised that the candidates appeal to our fears, our greed, our self centeredness and selfishness. It is just sad to watch. It is even sadder that we thoughtlessly accept it as tolerable. You know, maybe the candidates are full of crap because we are full of crap. We were made for each other.
I am offended that the candidates don't, generally, attempt to connect with me at the level of my values. Are they assuming that I have no real values? Are they assuming that I have values, but my most important value is money? Are they assuming I have a strong value system but that system doesn't come into play when I am involved in doing important things like voting? Offensive.
I personally fear that we have reached a dangerous place in our governing process. There are a couple of theories around as to why a democracy can not be long lived. Those theories are: 1) Democracies generally progress through an initial period from bondage to spiritual faith escalating to the point where the citizens become totally dependent on the government to where they eventually revert back to bondage, and 2) Once the democracy shows signs of prosperity, citizens become generous in helping themselves by voting those who will support them from the public treasury. We are there and I am very uncomfortable.
While on the subject of the 2008 presidential campaign, I must say that I got a real chuckle out of the Obama campaign this past week. They were deeply offended that John McCain called Barack Obama a socialist. Obama has been recorded several times stating that he believes that we need, in the name of fairness, to redistribute the wealth in our nation. Socialism is defined as: "Socialists mainly share the belief that capitalism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital and creates an unequal society. All socialists advocate the creation of an egalitarian society, in which wealth and power are distributed more evenly." By his own statements, Obama has defined himself, on some level, as a socialist. And, when McCain points that our, Obama is offended.
Another source of chuckles for me has been McCain insisting on calling himself a maverick. If McCain is a maverick, I am an Olympic athlete. Sure, he has failed to vote the party line a few times over the years. Unless one was a robotic idiot, any Senator should be caught voting across party line every few years. Please! Are politicians full of crap, or what?
Copyright © 2008, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved
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