It's Not Who Wins, It's Who Gets Gonged
It's not bad enough that America has an obsession with being on a first-name basis with celebrities, we're now doing it with our so-called leaders. So we not only have Oprah and Ellen, Brad and Angelina, Hilton, Tom, Katie, Mel, Reej, Rosie and the Donald and Barbara, ad infinitum, now we also have Hillary and Barack and Arnold (okay, Arnold doesn't count, he's a politilebrity). But what really bugs me is the way the entire democratic process has been reduced to American Idol meets The Survivor with a little Deal or No Deal thrown in. It has nothing to do with the quality of leadership or their ideas, it's a big popularity contest, the entire purpose of which is not to enlighten, educate, or inform us, it's to grab ratings. I saw the other day that the latest polls show Jonathan Edwards ahead of Barack Obama in Iowa by two percentage points. Two points! Who cares? The caucus is a year away, and even then it means squat. And the name of the game that we're going to be innundated with for the next two years is Innuendo, Obfuscation, Lies, Deceit, Spin, Waffle, Backtrack, and Dirty Tricks. I can see it now, the day after the 2008 elections the newscasters will be saying (you fill in the blanks) "[----] has been elected President of the United States by a margin of [----]," and now to breaking news about frontrunners for the 2012 presidential elections." I can hardly wait.
posted by John M Crowther @ 7:18 AM
3 Comments:
Very good John! I remember the days when candidates and parties raised money by having spaghetti dinners and bean feeds. My wife was very good at organizing them. roger
Oh I agree... although we don't have to endure anything nearly as intense in the lead up to our elections as you guys do. But maybe the populace can only deal with it on this level... afterall it's a format that most people understand well after being pulverised night after night by the inanity of the television programs in question... and the endless fascination we lesser mortals have for anyone "famous".
You can't help but get the feeling we're all being played though... and you're dead right about how it will all be passe the day after the elections.
It works the same as Christmas... it's all over when the shops shut on Christmas Eve and they can't sell anymore gifts. By New Year the easter eggs are out!
Who me...cynical? *wink*
Our politicans have ideas? Talk about solutions? Have ethics?
Great cartoon. Love the expressions on faces. Had me laughing out loud.
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