Iowa: Sad Commentary on American Persuasion
Although I didn’t stay up last night looking for the answer to the million dollar question, I arose this morning eagerly awaiting the breakdown of the results from the morning pundits.
The first of the shows that I ran across was Morning Joe (with Joe Scarborough). Joe and the gang were weighing in on the results of the democratic side, noting that Clinton’s loss could be seriously devastating for the remainder of the primary season, and that the reason she lost was because Obama conveyed a message of hope and change, in contrast to Clinton’s message of “back to the ’90s”.
I flipped to Fox News to see the folks at Fox and Friends (truly one of the worst shows on cable television) to see the results of the republican caucus. It seems that the same reasoning for Obama’s victory on the democratic side was being cited for Huckabee’s victory on the republican side … hope and change.
In light of this reasoning, I have only one conclusion to make … we are, as Judge Andrew Napolitano says, a Nation of Sheep. This is a fact that I mentioned to my brother at my family’s Christmas meeting at the beginning of December, that this country is a country that decides who they will vote for based on a 30 second campaign commercial. We are shallow, that’s for sure.
It’s a sad day when two candidates who have been virtually silent on any of the specific issues are overwhelmingly approved by the electorate. Despite knowing virtually nothing about Obama or Huckabee, the public was convinced to vote for them by being fed a steady diet of hope and change. Why are we hopeful? What will change? Who knows … and evidently who cares.
I’ve now been watching the news for over an hour, and as of yet, no one has audibly mentioned any more than the top three placements on either side. Fox actually did mention that Fred Thompson and John McCain actually tied for third on the Republican side with 13%, however conspicuously absent from all but a single screen, the networks (at least the one’s I’m watching) have yet to acknowledge that Ron Paul scored a massive 10% of votes in the Iowa Caucus. In fact, Paul blew away the next candidate in the lineup by a full 7%.
But evidently this isn’t newsworthy to the folks at Fox. Nevermind that it shows unequivocally that Fox’s polls were fixed, leaving him off completely. I suppose that would be rather embarassing for a news channel that fancies themselves “Fair and Balanced”.
But I digress …
I’m more than a little disappointed in my fellow Americans. But such is life in modern America. I suppose I shouldn’t complain. Perhaps the solution is to just accept this as truth. But it is still rather disappointing that we may very well never have a great American President again. And that makes me sad … very sad.
For my part, I see plenty of change … but very little hope.
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I feel your sadness Nathan. I’m not sure what can be done.
I appreciate reading your thoughts. Keep writing them here, please.
I think even Jon Stewart was disappointed when he first interviewed him, back when he was first starting to pick up some momentum. Stewart kept trying to get him to be more specific, and Obama simply had nothing to say.
Huckabee has plenty to say, though. And it’s scary as hell.
Maybe we could have Paul with Kucinich as VP? They’re actually friends, and both have said they’re amenable to the idea of running together.
The layers of politics today make it so difficult to find out who really is the next best choice. I agree we are a society of quick answers and results in all we do—never enough to think, digest it all, and make informed decisions. What stinks is that in politics (even at lower levels) the person best for the job can either never make it to the top or when does is so limited by others to what they can ever do!
@George
Yeah, Obama and Huckabee are both pretty scary guys, in their message that is. Although, they are both very pleasant men.
Kucinich is a socialist, and a globalist. Yeah, he has a decent foreign policy, but for all the wrong reasons. I think Paul would rather a Napolitano VP (now that would be awesome!).