Cassi Creek
In a period in our history that offers the greatest possible exposure to the machinations of our governmental system, the most comprehensive, rapid, accurate (if one excludes Fox Propaganda) reporting on politics and politicians; too many of us have chosen to opt out of the process. There is no excuse for any citizen today to not be aware of the names of his Senators, his Congressional Representative, the Chief Justice, the major cabinet officers, and the Vice President and Speaker of the house. The better informed should also know state and local officials as well. But as Mr. Blow writes, we live in a world that seems to have forgotten that “We, the people” is not just an archaic phrase resurrected by Tea Party mobsters in yet another somewhat successful attempt to co-opt and re-write American history and its symbols.
“What’s Dumb, Really?
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: October 1, 2010 New York Times
“Big-city liberals and their blogging buddies love to paint Tea Partiers as yokels with incoherent candidates and language-mauling signs. (Some have even dubbed their misspellings and grammatical gaffes “Teabonics.”) On some level, this may be true. But there is also a certain hypocrisy to these taunts.
The unpleasant fact that these liberals rarely mention, and may not know, is that large swaths of the Democratic base, groups they need to vote in droves next month — blacks, Hispanics and young people — are far less civically literate than their conservative counterparts. “
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/opinion/02blow.html?ref=opinion
Cassi Creek
To lose an election to a party that truly fields a slate of honest and ethical candidates, that campaigns using truthful and honest ads, open opportunities for discussion of its goals, which insists that its candidates answer questions that come from the public rather than pretend to answer pre-screened questions posed by shills and plants; is distasteful but is what all political parties and their supporters should expect.
To lose to a party that plants a string of lies, innuendo, red herrings, and which circumvents campaign financing laws is not acceptable. It is inacceptable to lose to a party whose candidates will not answer questions in open forums but will repeatedly plant safe questions to provide the appearance of honest political campaigning. It is not acceptable to lose to a party which exemplifies dishonesty, hypocrisy, and corruption, which has no regard for the actual well-being of the American populace or nation. It is not acceptable to lose to a party which is willing to embrace and use racism, religious intolerance, xenophobia, and disdain for education as primary recruitment tools.
In short, it is not acceptable for the American public to see the GOP and its assorted mobs win elections by means of voter fraud, deceit, and most of all inaction on the part of other parties.
The failure to become politically aware and engaged is likely to hand the next Presidential election and the coming mid-term election to the GOP and its collection of lobbyists for corporate purchase of the U.S, government.
Obama won in 2008 by bringing the disengaged and indifferent to the polls. He has been repeatedly accused, by the right wing attack machines, of depending upon the votes of Blacks, Hispanics, other immigrants, and the “welfare cheats.” “Welfare cheats” currently comprise that growing pool of unemployed, outsourced, downsized, and outside the demographic considered employable for the few service jobs still available. They are the people drawing unemployment benefits that they paid insurance premiums for when they were employed. They are the people who are ill and unable to work any longer, the people who lost their retirement funds to unethical machinations on Wall Street and in the banking industry and now need a place to sleep, meals, medication, and the hope that somewhere down the timeline the “coalition of the unethical” will encounter retribution, justice, or karma.
Obama and the Democrats might be able to pull this election from the wreckage if they start playing to the young, unengaged, Black, Hispanic, unemployed, etc., that they used to win in 2008. If the GOP and the Tea Party mobs don’t like it, too damned bad. They have no license to complain about selective voter recruitment. They’re willing to crawl into bed with homophobes, xenophobes, racists, militia nuts, and any other splinter group that they can scare into voting their way.
The Obama machine and the Democrats need to pull their heads out and market where the message might possibly sink in. Quit running ads on network television. Buy time on every reality show, streamed music source, on-line video site, social networking site, and athletic competition that is willing to trade ad time for money. The young and the disaffected may not know American history but they know how to text their vote in, voice their opinions in sound bytes, blurbs, and tweets. They know professional athletes, pop starts, and they spend hours on-line or streaming, downloading, and staying in touch with their peers. It is time to use that constant connectivity that Gen Y seems to demand. By air time and send political ads by cell phone. Send blatant lies and attribute them to the GOP. Annoy the unengaged voters; make them think the GOP is doing it. It’s no less ethical than what takes place on television every day. Pay athletes and pop stars to insist that the non-voters turn out again as they did in 2008. It worked then against all hope. It needs to work again.
Of course, it wouldn’t work on me. I don’t know one pop star, movie star, actor, director, or athlete from another. But I’m older, I read, and I vote. I’ll be there to vote against the congressional representative from TN’s first congressional district. He’s about as unethical and unworthy as anyone I’ve ever voted against.
. Knowing who is in office, knowing who is running for office, and voting against people like him is a sacred duty laid upon citizens by the founding fathers. I’m happy to play my role.
No comments:
Post a Comment