Yeah, the voters say they want "issues", not horse race. Yet they seem to happily consume the horse race shit on a nonstop basis whatever their supposed gripes.
And anyway, they'll get 24/7 corporate horse-race because it's easier and more profitable for the GOoP-leaning, resource-poor MSM to do, and voters better like it---what's their choice again?
Posted by euzoius at November 25, 2007 03:53 PMIt's so much easier to compare candidates' shallow PR images against each other than the boring, unglamorous work of analysing their policies and backgrounds.
Why, if we did that, we might not have ended up with a sinister Emperor Darth Cheney appointing himself Chimp's VP and running a secretive, oil-cronyist shadow government under the nose of the feckless, disintersted dauphin.
Posted by Mike G at November 25, 2007 04:50 PMSorry, I am not buying this. I don't think the general public wants the press/media to cover issues at all. I think that they know they are supposed to say they want such coverage.
I am sure that similar polling would show that Americans are not racist, sexist or homophobic, that they genuinely care about education, the environment and fair taxation, and that they believe the criminal justice system should be fair for all citizens. Yet their voting behavior supports candidates and policies that are exactly the opposite of those things.
Has anyone seen any signs that more than a handful of Americans are willing to spend the time and intellectual energy it takes to understand "the issues?" If so, let me know.
Consider that, seven years later, the American public still regards Al Gore negatively.
Consider, too, that supposedly liberal and forward-thinking Californians threw a rather average governor out of office for supposed mismanagement, and elected an action-film actor who did exactly the same things as the "bad" governor, but remained very popular.
There are many, many great people in America, but the great mass of them, acting collectively on election days, are ignorant, small-minded bigots who love nothing more than the gathering of pitchforks and torches to relieve them of the emptiness and powerlessness that characterizes their lives.
Why do you suppose that so many Americans, including very well-educated Americans, go so far into debt to purchase homes, cars and other things that they very clearly do not need in order to live?
Posted by James E. Powell at November 25, 2007 05:07 PMI commend all the statements above. I think that we are fed what the Corporate Barons want to feed us, media-wise, and it's up to us to separate the wheat from the chaff....most people don't bother. Thus, we get, as Powell points out, a population that still thinks Al Gore is a lying buffoon and George Bush is a good guy to drink with. Now, since Bush has himself confirmed that he's an alcoholic, why would anyone want to drink with him (a mean drunk)?
I see the crux of the problem facing the American people as not Republicans, or wishy-washy Dems, but the iron grip of the Media on our "news". They are the top level of the Conservative Right and will continue to pervert the message to their own gain until a money related reason is given for them to switch sides. A massive majority vote, as happened this week in Australia, might turn the tide because in the end, it's only money they want.
It doesn't get much more eloquent than that, james powell, you made my day, FWIW.
T2, an actual political party that wanted to challenge the worthless, slanted coverage of the MSM (with its "Hillary Heckler" shit when the candidates were talking global warming) could make some headway just by talking about it, because the corporate media manipulation is so gross and apparent that many, many people can observe it.
Yet the elected Dems don't seem to raise a peep. But perhaps I've missed their sustained objections and someone can point put my error.
Posted by euzoius at November 26, 2007 06:12 AMWell said James and I agree.
Then there is the educated voter, who refuses to get outside the box and vote truth to lies. In those cases, facts and truth have no meaning. You can see that in some of our trolls right here at TLC.
(Disclaimer: No suggestion implied that all trolls are educated voters.)
Posted by Judith at November 26, 2007 06:34 AM