Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Vote!
Today is election day, America’s secular holiday. I’ve voted in the last two Presidential elections and I intend to do so today, though this will be the first time I have ever been at my polling place on election day. Since I’ve been eligible to vote I have voted in all but one or two primary elections, which makes me a rarity amongst my generation … I’ll spare everyone the usual “voting is a sacred duty” speech in favor of this simple example of why voting is important: when apartheid ended in South Africa they had free and fair elections for the first time in history. Black men and women stood in lines for hours and hours in the baking hot sun to cast their first ballots ever. It was something they and their fathers and mothers before them had protested and fought for the last half century for. People had died for the right to vote. People had gone to prison for the right to vote.
And they finally had it. They treasured the right to vote. Surely you can too?
That said, I understand that we are all weary of politics. We’ve all gotten bombarded with political advertising, particularly since most of us live in Pennsylvania, a “swing state” critical to Bush and Kerry’s political strategies. I will be eager for this election to be over, because I’m bitterly disappointed by how devoid of content, of actual discussion of the issues this election has been. This has been a real mess.
I got interested in politics after the 1992 election because the choice between the three candidates really got people talking and thinking about the issues. Throughout high school and college I was in the thick of things, interning on Capitol Hill, writing for my high school and college newspapers, volunteering, etc. Not anymore: I didn’t bother to watch any of the debates this time and I hit mute whenever political ads were on TV. In part it is because my mind was made up about who I was voting for some time ago, but the two political parties, the Republicans and Democrats, are killing the American political system with their name-calling and demagoguery and their embrace of politics as theatre.
Some of the blame lies with Kerry and Bush, some with their political advisors / handlers like Karl Rove, and some with the media: over the last decade Fox News, CNN and the rest of the cable TV channels have sought to make news pseudo-entertainment, theater of the absurd. Programs like “The O’Reilly Factor” and “Hannity & Colmes” have made politics and government angry screaming matches where the first casualty is truth, and the second is information: do people actually come away from watching that garbage informed? No. Pundits and politicos sprout one-liners, seeking to score points for “their side”. And don't think I'm letting the people off easy either: “The O’Reilly Factor” exists because people watch it, and the media thinks that what America wants. People should have rolled their eyes when Arnold used the phrase "girlie men", but instead they roared with approval. What's wrong with you people?
I applauded when Jon Stewart had the guts to go on “Crossfire” and tell the truth: the American media treats politics as entertainment and has dodged its duty to inform the people. I think that is one of the reasons why the blogging community has taken off over the last eighteen months or so: people haven’t been informed, they know it, and they are seeking out what other people have to say. It is how a lot of the real stories about the Iraq War have come out.
So vote. And then get informed. Seek out actual news. If people stop watching Fox News and CNN, maybe the networks will respond and finally begin to do their civic duty: educating the public. Then maybe the politicians will grow up and act like adults again.
And they finally had it. They treasured the right to vote. Surely you can too?
That said, I understand that we are all weary of politics. We’ve all gotten bombarded with political advertising, particularly since most of us live in Pennsylvania, a “swing state” critical to Bush and Kerry’s political strategies. I will be eager for this election to be over, because I’m bitterly disappointed by how devoid of content, of actual discussion of the issues this election has been. This has been a real mess.
I got interested in politics after the 1992 election because the choice between the three candidates really got people talking and thinking about the issues. Throughout high school and college I was in the thick of things, interning on Capitol Hill, writing for my high school and college newspapers, volunteering, etc. Not anymore: I didn’t bother to watch any of the debates this time and I hit mute whenever political ads were on TV. In part it is because my mind was made up about who I was voting for some time ago, but the two political parties, the Republicans and Democrats, are killing the American political system with their name-calling and demagoguery and their embrace of politics as theatre.
Some of the blame lies with Kerry and Bush, some with their political advisors / handlers like Karl Rove, and some with the media: over the last decade Fox News, CNN and the rest of the cable TV channels have sought to make news pseudo-entertainment, theater of the absurd. Programs like “The O’Reilly Factor” and “Hannity & Colmes” have made politics and government angry screaming matches where the first casualty is truth, and the second is information: do people actually come away from watching that garbage informed? No. Pundits and politicos sprout one-liners, seeking to score points for “their side”. And don't think I'm letting the people off easy either: “The O’Reilly Factor” exists because people watch it, and the media thinks that what America wants. People should have rolled their eyes when Arnold used the phrase "girlie men", but instead they roared with approval. What's wrong with you people?
I applauded when Jon Stewart had the guts to go on “Crossfire” and tell the truth: the American media treats politics as entertainment and has dodged its duty to inform the people. I think that is one of the reasons why the blogging community has taken off over the last eighteen months or so: people haven’t been informed, they know it, and they are seeking out what other people have to say. It is how a lot of the real stories about the Iraq War have come out.
So vote. And then get informed. Seek out actual news. If people stop watching Fox News and CNN, maybe the networks will respond and finally begin to do their civic duty: educating the public. Then maybe the politicians will grow up and act like adults again.
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