February 18, 2004
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What Democracy?
If I read many more articles about the Democratic race that imply that the only people running are Edwards, Kerry, and formerly Dean, I’m going to seriously consider a write-in or third party candidate for the finals.
At this point, I am really starting not to care who gets the nomination or the election. That’s not exactly true – it is more accurate to say that I’m displeased no matter who wins.
Kerry? Get real. If Kerry wins, the currently stirring masses will settle back down, we’ll see the most egregious edges of Bush’s actions trimmed back, but most of the damage will stay – and since the perception will be that the Democrats have fixed things, that’s going to be the new center.
Put simply – if Bush took us 10 steps backwards, Kerry will take us 4 forward and we’ll end up with everyone feeling satisfied at 6 steps back.
The blatant in-your-faceness of the current administration will disappear, but their accomplishments will remain.
And the idea that our vote makes a difference? Bullshit. Our leadership options are put forth by the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties, narrowed by the press corps – the level of choice we the people are given at the end of the day is superficial at best.
I wonder how many people even know that Kuchnich is running – and of those, how many have any idea of his platform?
To take a more obvious look, consider Dean’s path:
He wasn’t really my candidate, although there were a couple things about him I found interesting. However, he got some serious grass roots going and built some momentum. The media reported and hyped that momentum which helped build him into a shooting star – then, fairly abruptly, the media started reporting about him differently – showing him as angry and unpredictable (more or less the same way that McCain was taken down), and the shooting star went out as quick as anything.
The only question in my mind was whether the press corps never liked Dean but had to appear to embrace him before they could redirect the momentum and mass perception to shut him down or if they honestly did get into the momentum at first but later decided he wasn’t the candidate they wanted.
… wow. light bulb.
I am suddenly reminded of two web sites I would bring everyone’s attention to.
The first, is a fictionalized account of Socrates being channeled to Washington DC in June 1996 to conduct a critique of the Washington Press Corps – it may seem to be trivial, but I highly recommend it:
The second, is a companion site by the same authors. A site I had actually forgotten completely about until writing this blog.
It is called the Daily Howler. It is a semi-regularly maintained online paper that covers the press coverage of politics.
Frankly, I stopped reading it in 2000 or 2001 because I found myself growing too angry as I realized that the perception that vast majority of Americans – myself included – had of anything going on in Washington was in many cases fabrication. I’m not talking a little angry. I’m talking about sitting at my desk in my old office with clenched fists and a cold sweat as I waited for the red to clear from my vision angry – so angry I had to go for a walk to calm down enough to go back to work. Maybe I was just a bit sensitive – after all, that was around the same time I was finally politically waking up again.
A good example was the whole “Gore is a liar” thing – go back and read the articles, see the original facts. While Gore wasn’t my favorite option either, the image of him we were given by the press was completely skewed. In fact, I snapped at some even more blatant garbage the other day – as another reader pointed out, I should have known better.
Why does the press corps do this to us, to democracy? I don’t know. I don’t know if it is for political propaganda, for simply cultivating the market of news-as-entertainment, or for some other purpose.
Frankly, while I highly recommend reading Socrates Reads, I’m not sure whether or not I’m going to go back to reading the Daily Howler. I’m not really sure if I should recommend that you do either.
However, presuming that they have kept to their old standards (which one should know does tend to have a bit of a pro-Democrat bias, but not to the point where it seems to blind them), it should be a good source for digging into the stories behind the stories (and if I recall, all wonderfully well documented and referenced) – even if it does make you itch to find a rifle and a bell tower from time to time.
If you check it out, let me know what you think – The Daily Howler.
And as to true democratic control of this nation? I do believe it could be gained if someone could figure out how to herd 100 million apathetic cats – not lean hungry alley cats (although they present their own challenges), but chubby whiny grey house cats that are content to lay in the sun as long as they have food and litter and a bit of entertainment.
Damn it. I’m starting to get mad again. Problem is, I never know what to do about it.
To finish, here’s a nice quote from today’s howler:
ONE FINAL POINT: By the way, The American Prospect hid behind desks while the twenty-month War Against Gore was conducted. The grinding cowardice of such ‘liberal’ journals put Bush in his current position.
Comments (2)
I know who Kuchnich is and his platform and that he’s running. In fact, I am totally leaning towards him, and I haven’t voted anything other than third party/independent for over a decade now. And I have no qualms about doing a write-in. I vote my conscious no matter how slim the chance is that they might win. In my opinion anthing else is a wasted vote. I will check out those sites later, not enough time at the moment.
Melissa
*nod* An approach that gets a lot of vitriol directed at you (especially by bitter Democrats), but about the only intellectually honest option available.