Not Quite the Same Old Story

There's nobody worth voting for.

They're all crooks.

It's a choice between worse and worser.

The Democrat and the Republican are just like each other.

I'd vote if I thought my vote would make a difference.
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We are all influenced by media. That will be the focus today.

Newspapers and TV are dealing with a very outmoded set of presumptions when they report on politics. This leads to disinteresting blandness from the reader's vantage point.

The presumption, ongoing for at least a century, is that politics is left / right, Democrat / Republican, with a 3rd party thrown in for amusement once in a while. It may have been that way for a while but certainly is no more.

The Republican Party is not a party of people. It is a party of faceless corporations.

The Democrats are a party that is 70 to 80% controlled by faceless corporations.

It's similar to asking someone who owns the Kansas City Chiefs, who owns the Chicago Bears, or the Atlanta Braves. Name the principal owner of Target Stores.

Politics is the ultra-rich versus the really disgusting ultra, ultra rich; leaving the poor and the rapidly disappearing middle class to watch from the sidelines to see which group of workers in this country will take the next hit...losing their health insurance, having their pay halved, or losing their jobs.

Many voters, come election day, hold their noses and complain about no choices. They're right. There is no choice between corporation X and corporation Y. They're both going to take the money and run.

The media person, the Northwestern reporter for instance, if told to interview candidates for an office, would immediately interview the Democrat and Republican assuming there would be a difference when in reality the reporter is interviewing the pawns of Corporation XY.

$250,000 is being spent on a job which Ms Leschke or Mr Hintz will have for a few years. The person that wins will have to immediately start raising money to fend off issue ads and recalls from the corporation that lost.

The reporter needs a new set of presumptions. Throw the old ones out the window, challenge the status quo, and change the rules. Reporters should ask readers for questions, then dog the candidates repeatedly for answers.

Glossy answers will come forth from the corporate candidates, who should be given that title, and down to earth answers might come from non-corporate candidates.

The newspaper would be much more entertaining if the reporter used wealth and poverty to describe candidates opinions. Right now they try to distinguish wealth from wealth which leaves a bunch of apathetic non-voters on the sidelines complaining about 'nobody to vote for.'