This year marks the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attack on the US (we’re not allowed to say “Moslem-led” attack lest we offend somebody), and few people in America can tell you the exact year it happened. As we enter the presidential election cycle, it is horribly obvious that we have forgotten what happened to us. Instead of focusing on the real issues that face this country – security, energy, education, health (in no particular order) – we focus on whether or not Barrack Obama called Sarah Palin a pig (http://news.bostonherald.com/news/2008/view.bg?articleid=1118046&srvc=2008campaign&position=6). He didn’t. Even if he did, so what? There are bigger issues facing this country than name calling. Instead of holding the candidates’ feet to the fire on important issues, the press keeps giving us bizarre sound bites and non-stories. Does it really matter that Obama’s middle name is Hussein or that Palin’s daughter is pregnant out of wedlock? Perhaps the lack of a strategic energy policy is a tad more important than these personal issues.
Unfortunately, journalists are, generally, not intelligent enough to report or discuss the real issues. Important issues are reported with the same intellectual rigor as one would expect in People or Us. The media continues to oversimplify all political issues. This is most apparent in describing foreign policy. They simplistically divide the world into two groups: those who are our friends and those who are not currently our friends. The second group will become the first group if we give them McDonalds and democracy (in that order). Unfortunately, the reality is that the world is, in fact, divided into two groups: those who are currently screwing with us and those who are not currently screwing with us. The voters should make their choices accordingly.
Rather than being real patriots, taking control of our government, we sit by, dull wittedly, while the bureaucracy controls our lives through the “Patriot Act” (a scurrilous piece of doublespeak) and the politicians concern themselves exclusively with getting re-elected. This presidential election is the same as the last several ones. Instead of voting for the lesser of two evils, we have to vote for the person least likely to screw up the country.
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3 comments:
I couldn't agree more. It is sad that we have forgotten and that we base our political decisions more on the preoccupations of the moment than on an awareness of the past or a concern for the future. On the other hand, I suspect that this foreshortened vision is a problem endemic in liberal democracies, as evidence for which I evince the current demographic crisis in Western Europe. The lack of babies in Western Europe is nothing but momentary self-gratification with suicidal long-term effects. The same is true of our problems with national debt in this country, with social security, and the growing weight of entitlement programs.
Thank you for your blog: it helps us to remember what is truly important.
--Stephen
Your comments about journalists are very interesting but I don't place the blame there. The blame is with the American people who are too lazy to investigate issues and thereby allow the media to do their thinking and deciding for them. I have to admit that in my younger years, I just didn't care because I believed that nothing I did at the polling place mattered. I am still a drop in a pond but with e-mail, internet blogs and chatrooms, I am making a tiny e-splash to help keep my friends informed. By the way, I decided to buy some American government books this year because I ignored my civics/social studies/government instructors through primary, secondary, and college education. I'm a dope but at least I've woken up!
Anybody who takes the initiative to educate himself or herself is, in my opinion, amazingly intelligent.
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