We Deserve What We Get
This column is not about Hillary vs. Obama vs. Edwards. The truth is if I had the choice I'd vote for Dennis Kucinich because he's against the war, for the impeachment of war criminals in government, smart on the environment and the economy, and he has a sense of humor about UFOS. He's not afraid to joke about 'em for fear he'll be labeled a nutcase -- as indeed he was.
But I don't have that option. Kucinich represents my views, but he only got 1% in New Hampshire. Too bad.
I want to talk not about candidates but about our media turning every presidential election into a high school popularity contest. And we let them get away with it. And we don't stop Rupert Murdoch, Clear Channel, Disney, GE, Sumner Redstone and a few others from owning all the media all the time.
Our magazines and newspapers are so dumbed down that they never discuss issues, only stereotype or attack or puff up candidates -- and all for the most idiotic things -- like their marriages, which in truth we know nothing about -- or their weight or their clothes or their hair. They don't discuss brains, intelligence, psychological maturity, but only who's up or down in the polls, cuter in photos, who misted up, cried or didn't cry, said "my friends" like Reagan or mimicked Bill Clinton's style or JFK's or whomever's. Our press is a disgrace.
When Al Gore was a candidate, he was mocked and slimed by our stupid press. And look who we got? Cheneybush! Now Hillary's being slimed for being a woman, for being the wife of, for being smart, for being political, for being old, for not having left her husband -- just as she'd be slimed if she had left her husband. She has baggage -- like any old broad -- because the truth is that the older you are the more baggage you have. So there's ageism too. And a new fresh face, with less baggage, is like the latest starlet in Hollywood. We never heard about Edwards' ideas until his wife got cancer. We heard about his haircuts!
We never discuss psychological depth because hey, who cares if the president's a bomb-happy dry-drunk trying to play out an Oedipal war with his father? We never talk about people being tested in power or how steady they are or whether they read books or understand what they read because we judge them on their looks. Or one idiotic sound byte, taken out of context.
We had gazillions of columns about Al Gore's weight gain and growing a beard -- I was even asked to write one for the New York Times -- and I obliged because that's all the news that's fit to print and I like shooting my mouth off on the Op-Ed page as much as anyone. Besides women writers are only drafted for the most trivial subjects. We comment on style not substance, beards not policy, clothes and shoes and chick lit and cooking. The men get the big topics like war, though women have the most to lose--like their children whom they carried and nursed and suckled and love more than themselves--as of course do many men.
Bush was considered a good ole boy and Gore was a considered a nerd. Now Edwards cares too much about his hair, Hillary "cried" in the press--though she didn't cry in reality. But we live in this parallel universe where there is no reality. Obama? Who knows who he is? A brilliant writer, yes, a cute young guy, yes, a progressive, we think. But who really knows? I give him the benefit of the doubt. Why not? But what a stupid way to choose a President!
If Eleanor Roosevelt were alive and running, they'd talk about her big teeth and her hoity toity accent. If JFK were alive and running, they'd reveal his affair with Marilyn and slander his wife for it. If Jackie O were alive and running, they'd say she fucked Onassis -- which she did -- while she was married to JFK. If Plato were alive and running, they'd say he was gay--though many Greeks were bisexual and thought nothing of it.
So kids, if you elect a President of the United States like you elected the President of the GO in High School, you deserve what you get.
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YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT. The media focuses on some of the stupidest subject matter, and hasn't taken this election seriously. The questions and answers during the debates haven't revealed much substance regarding what the candidates are going to do to get this nation back on track. They haven't addressed the Palestian/Isaeli issue, the economic disparity that has grown to outrageous proportions, the lack of TRANSPARENCY regarding the corruption and money stolen by and for Iraq...why their infrastructure remains in ruins while billions of dollars have poured into the area, the amount of money spent on prisons vs education and economic development, and the fact that the congress, as well as, the president and his administration, HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE AN ORDINARY, 9 TO 5, LOW/MIDDLE INCOME CITIZEN. THEY HAVEN'T A CLUE WHAT PEOPLE FACE ON A DAILY BASIS, OR DO THEY EVEN CARE? i.e., how could that Senator? Congressman? ask the Federal Reserve Chairman that inane question about what made him think that poor or middle income people were LIKELY to take their rebate and spend it? WHAT PLANET ARE THESE PEOPLE FROM? HOW CAN THEY CLAIM TO REPRESENT THE PEOPLE WHEN THEIR REALITY IS SO FAR REMOVED THAT THEY CAN'T EVEN FIGURE OUT THAT IF YOU HAVEN'T ANY MONEY YOU ARE GOING TO SPEND WHATEVER YOU CAN GET YOUR HANDS ON? FORGET ABOUT REPORTING AND STUDIES. WHY DON'T THEY CHANGE PLACES FOR A MONTH WITH ONE OF US? THERE'S NOTHING LIKE EXPERIENCE TO GROW A BRAIN.
Erica,
I could almost hear “Good night and good luck” echoed from the distant past, as you wound down your prose that so succinctly points to the rotten marrow in our journalistic backbone. How Edward Murrow would deal with the legerdemain of our day in all its guises befuddles the imagination. One can only surmise, like you, he would assuredly vent his ultimate disgust upon the media barons smoke and mirror show; then again, CBS would defiantly not have him in their employ, however, he might have written for the Huffington Post?
If I may; might he have just urged us to turn it off, abstain from the indignities of written rags with their psycho-corp. co-conspirators and let his brethren feel hunger pains for awhile? Maybe then and only then, would they possibly reflect upon their own importance.
Good Job Erica!
I believe there is a direct correlation between the intelligence of the average American and the caliber of the periodicals in the check-out line of supermarkets. I'm personally convinced that just reading the headlines of most of them can lower one's I.Q. by several points. So why are they there? Because that's what sells. Remember 'Dirty Laundry' by Don Henley?
"We can do the innuendo, we can dance and sing. When its said and done we haven't told you a thing. We all know that crap is king. Give us dirty laundry!" 1982 - 'I Can't Stand Still' - Don Henley
There are plenty of sources with cogent information for anyone intelligent enough and interested enough to make the effort to find them. Sadly, those people do not make up the majority of American voters. Want ratings? Flog 'pseudo-news' & 'infomercials'. Tell us about Anna Nichole & Britney. Mental Novocain is all the vast majority of drones really want.
To paraphrase Keanu Reeves in 'Parenthood', "You have to take a test to get a driver's license, but any dumb son-of-a-bitch can be a father." Or, sadly, a voter. Sigh.
Ms Jong has it correct in spades and I would add that we cannot just blame the media. They run off of public opinion, polls, whatever, and they know who is watching what. I do not watch any of the major networks, except MSNBC (Keith Olbermann)because their talking heads do not want to wind up fired, like Dan Rather, or Phil Donahue. Why Keith gets away with it I have wondered but people watch mainstream news and get nothing but what the powers want us to hear-propaganda-so we the people need to shoulder the blame for not reading enough, for wanting to follow the popular figures, for trusting the media to have our best interest at heart-they don't-These so-called hard-hitting interviewers like Tim Russert-concentrate on the details of the misteps, the dirty laundry that Don Henley sang about, not the fundamental criminal intent and history of the US policies. Read Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Thomas Franks, The Nation-These people are true intellectuals. The media figures party with the power-mongers and grow rich from not telling the truth. We are intellectually lazy as hell and easily fooled and only we can change that and vote accordingly and even then, the media leads us by selective interviewing, etc. We may be past the point of the common person having any substantial effect on who has the power. We have been distracted by the propagandists in focusing upon football games, shopping channels, having children, turning to religion instead of rational thought, anything except looking for truth, and you will not find truth in the propaganda we are fed every night on the "news". We need to reward and promote intellectualism in our youth, not focus on sports, religion, proms, popularity, etc., or we reap what we sow.
The dumb, ignorant and lazy American voter will be the downfall of this country.. and there is nothing that 'we' can do about it.
I have been heavily reading forums and I continued to be stunned by the pure ignorance of people and their blind support of certain candidates based on wishy washy bull**** statements that says nothing.
What I do not like is that the media refuses to ask tough questions. So the candidates get away with saying that they will fix all our problems if they are elected. Great, but HOW? WHO? HOW MUCH? WHO WILL PAY? etc..
All the average voter hears is manipulated marketing statements that tells their brain that they will be healthy, happy and rich if this candidate is president.
Also, how much some of the media has practically censored Ron Paul out of the discussion. Even when he polls more than one of the other 5 candidates CNN and Fox refuse to even print his name.
So true. Anything to make the people dumber and dumber. Smart people are a threat to democracy and the power. The dumb are easy to scare and manipulate. The dumb will never know that the press likes to employ dumb young writers to write dumb articles full of dumb things for them -THE DUMB OF AMERICA
We certainly do deserve what we get, just like we did on Sept. 11, 2001.
Erica Jong is completely accurate in her assessment of the political circus that seems to out weigh America's need for real content on real issues. David Kucinich is the only candidate with the conviction of his ideology. It's a sad state of affairs when a superficial popularity contest overshadows real issues. Erica's right.... We deserve what we get. The buzz word is change, but, the true plans that would initiate change remain unexpressed for most of the candidates.
As a member of The Sons of the American Revolution, with a strong and proud military family, I feel Our government has been playing games with our veterans ever since the Oneida Indian Nation fought in the Revolutionary War. They were among our first American Solders and took up arms against the British to help our nation earn its independence after our Revolution. Our new government used land seized from the British to compensate our veterans and the Oneida veterans were stripped of much of their original territory, by having 10 million acres of land taken from them.
Presently our current service members have who have had repeated and extended deployments to war zones, have shown a rise in post-traumatic stress and other war-related wounds among troops. While it is good to support your troops that are serving our interest it is better to demand accountability from those responsible for the lack of their care in these injuries. It is utterly disgusting that VA hospitals are turning away those most in need. Those in charge of VA hospitals need to take responsibility for their lack of actions. I believe the whole VA system needs an overhaul and very soon. More and more wounded troops coming home and they need both physical and mental health care.
Our troops deserve the best of all aspects of care! Wake up, America! We fail to take care of our own as we should and I think it's time that we start.
VA hospitals are in hopeless situations. This type of treatment is the rule and not the exception for those who are closely associated with regular active duty military.
the Iraq veteran is in the same boat as the Vietnam veteran in the 1970's. At least now, they have a name for it, PTSD, and Agent Orange has been proven, but the VA doesn’t take our veterans needs seriously!
It's terrible that our country is ignoring the cries of our vets. It's no surprise what is happening with the Syracuse Veterans Hospital if similar acts are occurring around the country. Doctho@roadrunner
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Why DO WE HAVE TO PUT UP with this 2 years of campaign rivalry instead of simply forcing the candidates to fill out on a questionnaire of subjects with reply devised into maybe a three part:
1) a. 1-5 answer 1agree - 4disagree, 5=don't care.
b. With an x/o =closed/open to discussion.
2) 2-3 line personal statement on the subject.
3) Window address on computer which would support and expand their reasoning best with an article.
Three part to allow easy look, with first two parts completed at a 2-3 hour exam.
Reveal the replies to the public. If elected, then simply force them to live up to their word or get impeached for lying to the public.
Demand back our democracy.
Give the public the chance to really know who they are voting for based on facts rather than glamor.
Give politics a chance to:a) not need the money
b) address all major issues
Give the media less time to manipulate the ignorant while avoiding the issues.
I guess I would agree with the overall characterizations in this piece but I don't get my information from most of the mainstream news sources. To lump all magazines, newspapers, and news programs into the same scrap heap is doing a disservice to the few really good ones.
There is no doubt that the mainstream media shapes how elections are covered but are they really leading in the dumbing down of this coverage by adding more entertainment value to it or just giving Americans what they want? We can't divorce business decision making from the equation either since you can't run a news organization always losing money. As long as it is more profitable for news to cover elections through personalities, this is what we will get.
RJ Crane
topplebush.com
Very, very sad but indeed true.We are in the presence of an erotic, mindless generation so superficial that they have no idea what they are doing, why and how, just do it.I trust Nike will not sue me for infrigement of it's rights.
"Bush was considered a good ole boy and Gore was a considered a nerd. Now Edwards cares too much about his hair, Hillary "cried" in the press--though she didn't cry in reality. But we live in this parallel universe where there is no reality. Obama? Who knows who he is? A brilliant writer, yes, a cute young guy, yes, a progressive, we think. But who really knows? I give him the benefit of the doubt. Why not? But what a stupid way to choose a President"
Why not just admit you don't like Obama because he will steal your dream of a woman president?
Ms.Jong
You said it. And here's why, in part:
Elected public servants rarely address issues they don't include in their campaign platforms.
Their campaign platforms rarely include fact-based positions on issues because it's more politically expedient not to.
It's politically expedient not to, because the public doesn't demand issues-based platforms.
The public doesn't demand issues-based platforms because they don't have enough background information to understand frank and fact-based discussions on issues.
The public doesn't have enough background information because MSM corporate conglomerates care much more about milking the consumers than informing the citizenry, and because our public school system has been on a downhill slide for the last 40 years, to the point of being broken, and because our brains have been trained to think only in the cognitive shorthand of consumption; image, hairstyle, charm, sexual and social attributes.
So that's how we reject a wonky Nobel Peace Prize winner and choose a ... well you said.
First step in changing it? Legal and within the system, of course.
Maybe a consumer boycott? Maybe a mass letter writing campaign to break up corporate MSM?
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