It is really hard to explain what is going on in the modern political climate nowadays. When American people consider intelligence and telling the truth as being negative or as the right wing calls it, being "Elitist." I don't know about you but I would like the people I vote for to be vastly more intelligent than I am. Nowadays the American people want someone they can relate to or to be just like them. According to the incredibly famous poll of the 2004 Presidential election, "Who you would most likely have a beer with?" Barack Obama was raised by a single mother who got by on food stamps and low income. He also needed college loans to support himself in college where he majored in political science, international relations, and constitutional law. In our country today graduating from Harvard Law in these three important Federal Government majors is perceived as a negative? People would rather go to a barbecue or have a beer with their President rather than using their brain, to help the American people? They also say being a good speaker is a negative. Most people who say that do not understand how leadership works. A quality in which I look for in a President. Great leaders lead with their words. Some of our greatest Presidents were great speakers. Look at the great speeches of the past and ask yourself, were they good leaders? In the military would you have faith in your commanders decisions if they didn't inspire you? Anyone remember Patton? Washington?
The majority of the country has lost all faith in our government. I came to this conclusion from looking at approval ratings of the President and Congress. Majority of the country also believes that we're on the wrong tack. When Barack Obama said,
"And it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."I agree it was a wrong choice of words but it couldn't be any closer to the truth. When anyone has economic hardships, they point blame. Most people then retreat to things that give them comfort. Barack Obama has also said, that to survive in the Global Economy we are going to have to better educate ourselves to compete with the world. The factory/labor jobs are becoming something of the past because technology advances and there are cheaper and easier ways to do things then to pay a worker. When Barack Obama shoots down the "Gas Tax Holiday" as political pandering and pointless by every single partisan and non-partisan economist, he is called out-of-touch.
I'm beginning to lose faith in the American people if being smart and honest are negatives in your eyes.
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"The novelist Russell Banks, in his first book of non-fiction, just published, explains the Sarah Palin phenomenon even before it happened. In "Dreaming Up America," he writes that we choose our presidents not on the basis of their experience or even their political views, but on how well they tap into our basic beliefs, our deepest communal desires, including our religious or spiritual beliefs. Our presidents, he writes, represent in some very personal way the imagination and the mythology of the people who elect them.
ReplyDeleteThis helps us understand why the facts about Sarah Palin meant nothing when she suddenly materialized on the public stage, like Cinderella at the ball. You could see the convention delegates awed by the magical moment when the small-town girl, church-going hockey mom, mentored by her pastor to think upon the story of the biblical Queen Esther, became an overnight star. Leaping past "go" to the pinnacle of politics and the ultimate goal the cover of "People" magazine.
No wonder reality-based journalists are having a hard time with this story. Mythology is not their beat. But in the imagination of her tribe, Sarah Palin achieved an almost immaculate conception. Her lack of experience matters not to them. Nor do they care that her past is filled with contradictions, and nothing the press reports, no matter how grounded in fact, can shake their faith."
From last week's Bill Moyer's Journal.
So true.
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