it is now election season. well. this election season has been going on for what seems like my entire post-graduate career. i'm done with my graduate education and it is still going on. this election is like cancer. it is always there, just waiting. then you are lucky (meaning you are cured, not dead) and it is over. but after it is over, what do you do? move on? you just dodged death. what do you do after that? go back to working your little job? go watch a movie? buy a car? drop out of college and play some video games?
ngewo wants to talk politics. so i'm going to put an idea out there. i read the ny times often. if you want rational answers to problems, maybe try www.becker-posner-blog.com or www.skeptic.com. don't try newspapers and presidential candidates.
my position on the election is this, who cares what their policies are. presidential elections, like everything else, are way too simplified. commercials want you to think two things, first that the other guy is a jackass and second that actual policy statements matter. elections are not about policies, they are about personalities. and they should be.
the president that is successful is not the one that has strict policy answers, its the one that listens and adapts. its also the one that isn't bound by rules. rules are ridiculous, unless it is a sporting event. then, maybe. but even there i can think of lots of sensible rules based upon positive goals like safety, which just don't work. two instances, pass interference and any roughing call in hockey. you can't define those things. they are always in flux based upon the momentum and mood of the game. being the president is more like making a pass interference call than it is an offsides call.
as usual, editors are complaining that there are very few policy positions being espoused. but who cares? policy positions do not matter generally. the job of the president is always changing and he doesn't make the rules alone. another for instance, it doesn't matter much about any candidate's position on abortion. whether you love god or not, abortion is constitutionally protected. that is not likely to change. it might make you feel better, but his position doesn't matter.
what does matter is how likeable a guy the president is. is he able to negotiate well? is he smart enough to adapt and know who to listen to and when he doesn't know what he needs to know?
mccain is telling us that obama's going to spend all of our hard earned income and that republicans will not. this isn't true, they will all spend our income. first, obama never advocated raising taxes. second, the repubs have spent more money than we have had coming in without raising taxes, which doesn't speak of fiscal responsibility. in fact, it sounds like they were spending our children's income, or my income a few years from now.
obama's telling us that mccain is just like bush. well, this isn't true either. he's not just like bush. there are plenty of differences between the two. and the statement means nothing, so what if he voted with him on your "90%" of the time number. maybe all those votes with him were on run of the mill things. it is meaningless information. sounds great though.
the truth is, there is no good information. there can't be. its not a job like any other. and you can't make promises. well maybe one. the promise they should make is that they will be smart and not think of their own interests first. they will be cool guys to the rest of the world. they will work to improve everyone's lives by creating opportunity. now, tell us how you will create opportunity.
there's a difference between telling us how they will create opportunity versus espousing policy statements. Abortion is immoral or NAFTA is bad is a policy statement. but explaining how you will create opportunity is a statement of one's philosophical and personal vision. these are different. policy is a rule, philosophy is frame of reference. for instance, i'll create opportunity by opening markets, because opening markets does the following things..., although it has the following immediate negative effects... it will be a net gain.
so the candidates should stop giving us policy rules, but general visions. its childish to believe that they can follow policy rules, but their philosophical solutions will tell us how they analyze what comes up before them. being president isn't about making rules, that's the legislature's job. being president is about directing the country and speaking to the world on behalf of the american people. tell us how you are going to do that.
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3 comments:
i'll be the first to admit that i don't really follow politics. i'm not opposed to it in any way; i mean, i'll watch a speech or two if i happen to flip by it while channel surfing or i'll read an article if i find the headline particularly engaging, but i'll never actively seek out this information. i've been called an idiot for this quite often, but i'm cool with that. it's kind of like babylon 5 for me: people say i should get into it, but i'm so far behind right now it'll take way too long to get caught up at this point. and i gots other stuff to do.
with that out of the way...
the problem with changing the style these political races take is that the candidates have to take their audience into consideration. i suppose it's condescending to imply that the majority of the general public cannot grasp intellectual rhetoric, but sometimes it just feels that way. in my eyes, we live in a society that hinges on absolutes. perhaps not as much as in the world of jedi, but enough such that people respond better to "he is this, while i am this". this helps people decide better compared to analyzing ones overarching fiscal plan.
i agree that using ones stance on things like abortion don't really matter because those issues will never be changed, but maybe they're just a tool to better determine what future decisions will be. decisions which will become reality. the same way you can tell pandora that you like coolio and they'll make you a playlist that you should like based off of that, perhaps information like this is used to say if this guy hates abortion as much as i do, then he'll make the same choices i would make on other issues. or something like that.
also, i think voting should still be done online. i think that would get a lot more people to vote, plus you could install a candidate infograph right there on the voting page, with info concerning what each candidate's policies are, they're general visions, videos of speeches, etc. it'd be up to the voter how much they feel like reading; but it'd all be there in one easy to find place. i think the only thing preventing this from happening is the potential for malicious hacking. an easy way to combat that would be to just not make it anonymous anymore. i never really understood why it mattered. so many celebs appear at political rallies and such, it doesn't seem like anyone is concerned about anonymity. i know im not, if that makes it possible for me to vote and check my fantasy team at the same time. then again, i still don't understand why women won't tell me their age. i guess some people just like keeping things a secret.
JSO...I agree with you that it would be better to choose your candidate by looking at their personality and what their general vision for our nation looks like. Unfortunately, as Gideon says, most people just want to hear the talking points. They want things to be black and white. The average person does not want to have to think about things. It is much easier to say "Obama is about gun control, that means he will take away our right to hunt." Or "McCain wants to drill for oil in Alaska, that means he hates forests."
Whose fault is this? Over the years the media has found that it is much easier to keep people tuned in by just doing short news pieces and making a good guy and a bad guy. They have taken that to the extreme and we see that everywhere now. Even in our election.
Taking a look at each candidates website gives a glimpse at what they are about, and obviously they put up where they stand on each issue. But, as JSO says, what is their general plan, what kind of leader will they be? Neither site really tells you too much, just that they will work hard for us and make sure that they do some things.
I remember in the 2000 election, you could go to the Al Gore website and he had his mission statement. It was clearly written, concise, and showed you the kind of President he would be. Unfortunately, during debates and interviews, that Al Gore never seemed to come out.
Maybe I am a fool for still thinking that voter apathy is the way to go. A revolution maybe? I am not saying we need to have bloody coup, but what will change with either candidate?
Will I get free health care under either one? Probably not, I know Obama likes to talk about it, but it will not happen.
As of now, I am still undecided on who to vote for. In 2000, I actually thought McCain would be a better candidate than Bush, but that was "maverick" McCain, not the one we see now. Actually, that was the McCain who wanted to see major reforms in boxing, and that made me like him, haha.
I also tend to be rather ignorant on the topic of politics, even though before reading this post, earlier in the day i came to the realization that everything we do is surrounded by some funny little man's or popular soccer mom's social swirl of politics, but i digress.
The ignorance of politics for many americans, such as myself, is the fact that now to garner the people's vote for presidency is strictly dependant on how bad you can make the other candidate look to his peers, to sway the public opinion on an important topic many people may actually give a damn about. You cheated on your wife? Then your views on abortion must be skewed. You're black and used to practice the muslim faith? You obviously can't handle the fiscal responsibilities of fixing our debilitated economy. You used a cigar where?! You got my vote!
It's kind of a ridiculous satire, but you get my point. I think it's with these kinds of ads one candidate is firing at the other to belittle the character of the next leading man of our country, that I tend to agree with JSO with the individuals personality as the most important part of the election. Can he handle the heat of billions of people viewing, judging, degrading, and second guessing his every moment as the most powerful man on the face of the planet, while at the same time making that very population fall in love with a charisma that says i could be your next door neighbor inviting you over for a barbecue? Can he make the decisions that can once again turn us into the most respected nation in the world? How does he handle important conferences with foreign prime ministers and presidents, to string together proper relationships that i'm told will help in the future, but don't entirely understand myself, which is why he got my vote in the first place?
I do understand there are advisors and a legislature that actually, i guess you can say, guides the president along? But it does come down to his final vote that makes him the most powerful man in the world, and that's what people are drawn to when it comes to election time. Can he handle that responsibility? That is all we care about, it is black and white, it is the voters apathy as ngewo said. This is the guy we will let be our voice because he has the air of power and confidence we're looking for and he has a friendly face despite what that other guy said. Is it ignorant? Yes. But, there are too man topics that just don't matter to most people for them to get stimulated by the idea of politics and broken policies.
I think when it comes to election time, i'm going to look over a few topics myself, such as how will this guy help my father retire admirably, and if there is a way, how will he increase the quality of healthcare, rather than how he likes his cigars.
Right now I like Obama i think. Maybe it's because he's got such an honest family, seriously, how many daughters are willing to make their dad look like a geographical moron in front of millions of registered voters? If his preteen daughter has those traits, he's got to, they had to come from somewhere, and i'm not sure i trust his wife, she looks like she'd be the one using the cigar if ya know what i mean. And, he's got a friendly face, i don't care about his color, his religious belief or how admirably he served or could serve in any war, i want to look at the man and say "ok, i believe you."
Who knows i could be way off base, i'm not sure much of this made sense. I don't understand the realm of politics, i've always tried to steer clear of it, but my earlier realization led me to get highly engulfed in this little presidential personalty patter. Even with my limited IQ on the whole situation and on all things in general. But, even after elections i'll go about my magoo way not even knowing if my opinion made the slightest difference, and to be realistic, not even caring. I probably won't even notice any kind of change anyway, and as they say, ignorance is bliss.
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