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.

Comments

[JakeEasy]

"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."

A nation gets the president it deserves. Our stupidity and sheep-like tendencies gave us George and Dick. If we keep being stupid and keep bleating like sheep, we will get McCain/Lieberman.

People keep saying that the Republicans stole the election because it was so close. It shouldn't have been close. If 49% of Americans think that the Republican candidates were better than the Democratic ones, we are truly a pathetic nation of fools who deserve no better than the scorn of the civilized world and an economy in ruins.

(I guess you can see, I'm feeling less than "hopeful" about the election.)

[WilliamEGraham]

You want issues? OK.....Let­s talk about the issues. How about health care? - Everyone tacitly assumes we should have a government financed health care plan. I spent my life working and saving for the future so that I could afford to retire comfortably, and now the Robin Hooders want to tax me to pay for everyone else's health care. Why is it that nobody wnats to take care of themselves? We all seem to want the government to do it. We don't have a government funded food program, or housing program, or clothes program. So why should we have a government funded health care program? I take care of my own food. That's why I can eat what I damn please, and don't have to eat what the government wants me to eat. I pay for my own house. That's why I can live where I please, and don't have to live where the government wants me to live. And the same is true of my clothes, and anything else that I buy for myself. When the government buys my health care, I will have to go to the doctors they want me to go to, and the clinics they want me to go to. But more importantly, I will be taxed to pay for the health care of others who fiddled like the grasshopper when I was working and saving for my own future. So here is an issue. Lets talk about it instead of Bush's failure to pronounce "nuclear" correctly.­.....How about that?

[nycborn]

Bill Moyers is one of the few untainted journalists left in the United States. Now that Rupert Murdoch has succeeded in bribing the FCC to allow more corporate control in the media, we can watch his propaganda flow through the airwaves. What a sad state we are in. Heaven help us.

[BigBen]

The Question is If Barack was a white male would he be running for President?If "yes" would he be leading John and Hillary? If"no" then is he not playing the ultimate race card?I do not believe Barack would be viable as a democratic candidate against either John or Hillary were he Caucasian. Does that make me racist?Is a single vote against the war when it did not make any difference a sufficient reason to make one president of the Unites States.Why are we supporting those who more than voting for the war went out and indulged in it(many of the troops) and opposing those who just voted for it?

[frolveda]

in american politics why is it that the electorate is always reduced to a fly in a room full of spiders?

[EvereaderinSC]

There are magazines out there that do dig much deeper. The New Yorker for one is a publication that spends the time on issues. Their political profiles go deeper than skin depth. I've read excellent pieces there on McCain, Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Barack Obama through excellent indepth profiles. NYer also has fantastic articles on all kinds of other topics. Their recent article on ancient evolutionary viral fragments in our DNA/new research on this, was an eye and mind-opener. Rolling Stone has good articles too, as do a number of others.
The main thing is to go to a number of different sources. I say keep the damned TV OFF, folks! You really might end up learning something for a change. Enough of us pitch in we can shake this corporate media thing. We need badly to get our kids outside too. Away from video games, cell phones, TVs in our SUVs (yours not mine that is as I've never owned one!), YouTube, Google, text messaging, MySpace and on and on. We're never going to help them understand this world by keeping them inside ALL THE TIME!

[BinBaldwin]

Yes of course lets avoid all the issues that may make YOUR candidate look bad . Lets call Bush a chimp and make some dopey argument about MY PET GOAT..

[Billiam]

Ms Jong,

" ...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."

Having a sense of humor about UFO's is precisely why many of out here who understand UFO reality refuse to vote for anyone who either hasn't bothered to do their homework about the topic, or dismisses it as a "joke".

Being labeled a "nutcase" when talking about the UFO phenomenon represents an archaic mindset that has no place in contemporary discourse, and deserves to be relegated to the dustbin of outdated lexicon terminology that the '50's and '60's spawned.

Mr. Kucinich, to his credit, acknowledged the phenomenon, even if he didn't have the balls to tell what he really does know about the this issue; and he was only labeled a "nutcase" by those like you who understand nothing about it.

Do your homework before you criticize.

[WilburM]

"Close your eyes and IMAGINE this country today if the Supreme court in 2000 hadn't turned is back on the constitution and had instead demanded the Florida vote recount be completed"

close your eyes and imagine this country today if the Supreme Court had properly voided the 1960 election due to rampart voting fraud and assault on the part of the Democrat-Teamsters teamwork in Illinois.

as much as I despise what Bush and his neocon/warmongering pals have done... it goes back AT LEAST to '68 or to LBJ escalating the war or to Kennedy getting into Vietnam in the first place or to truman for dropping the bomb or to roosevelt/churchill for handing over eastern europe to a butcher etc etc etc

[jayne]

In a word, brava, Erica; brilliant, as always!

Discourse that starts with "Shut Up, so and so" invariably finds its way to the headlines much faster than anything substantive.

The separation between purse strings and press has been compromised, and consolidation virtually ensures that even the weather forecasts get recycled.

Accountability has gone the way of the dinosaur, and righteous indignation is left to tigers at the zoo.

Women writers find themselves ineluctably find token gains today. We are a culture of veneer, and the veneer is quickly wearing thin.

[mythster]

The American people deserve the media that they've got because that's what they like , that's what they want and that's what they understand. In the great state of Texas, one out of four adults can't read above a fifth grade level. Even "People" is a stretch.
That's just the way it is and there's nothing you or I can do about it because that's the way "they" want it to be.

[Galt907]

The American Media assumes the American People are too stupid to understand the real issues, as long as the American People elect candidates such as "Shrub 'n Thug", don't take the time to dig for the truth and accept the pablum mixed with lies ladled out by the media, perhaps it is all we deserve.

[jakibaez]

So, true, because if they really went into Obama's votes and governing, they will find that good Old boy is not what he seems. At least Hillary has a brain!

[TankerRat]

I love how you people spout about principles and then vote for whomever the DNC and the MSM tell you too. Nominate HRC OR Baby shoes Obama and see what happens to you in the general. Old Karl is still smirking because he knows he can beat either of them. Dream on you fools. First rate post Erica

[JenIA]

"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. "
blah blah blah blah

The problem isn't that Hillary is a woman. The problem is the woman that she is.