Politicians change, but the policies don’t
To the editor
The magic of critical thinking.
Pick an issue, any issue. Like a good card trick or slight of hand, political issues are dealt to the public the way that the dealer wants them to be seen. They are shown and sold to us through politicians that are bought and sold by the dealer behind them. You remember the quote from “The Wizard of Oz” – “Don’t pay attention to the man behind the curtain.”
I remember a commercial once on TV that had a woman spokesperson with short blonde hair that would say, “Stop the insanity.” As effective advertisements, the first thing to do is get your attention. But, then I pondered the tongue-in-cheek definition of insanity. “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”So, why do we always seem to fall for the trick? Is it our loyalty to brand, Democrat, or Republican? Or, are we being controlled by the system? Both parties are losing members to the growing group of non-affiliated voters. I suspect it is being ill informed by design.
A politician’s profile is to love your mom, your country and apple pie. By all means, salute the flag while standing beside a veteran. Say you are conservative, say you’re God fearing and kiss a baby. After all, who could possibly argue with those canned images? Those are the standards that we all adore.
The reason why we preach to the choir is because that is how you get them to sing.
In days gone by, local media would see who raised the most money and endorse that candidate, from whatever party. The logic being that that candidate was a good organizer and manager, because it was a challenge to raise the kind of money it takes to run a political campaign. I challenge that train of thought. Think Eric Cantor.
Issues are complicated and politics has changed due to the amounts of money involved. Today, if you are the candidate who raised the most money, you have pimped yourself out and your investors now own you. We need our media to dig deeper than the canned image. The clean and polished looking baby kisser could very well be a snake, regardless of brand.
I have a suggestion.
Let us look at the positions of the candidates, but also the donors supporting them. Let us compare the donation information with the candidate’s positions. We can do that. It is not too much to ask of the media. No one has to ascribe motivation and to have those two types of information at the same point in time would be very helpful. Then we would be able to think critically.
The faces of the politicians change, but the policies don’t. Our issues never seem to get resolved. Florida’s schools are still in poor shape after years of debate. Our waters are still being polluted by big agriculture. Our seniors are being abused at care facilities and children are dying while in the care of DHS.
How can this be? Ask the who, what, where, when and why. Then get out to vote.
Charles Messina