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Politics: It's same everywhere....

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by onbliss

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Note:
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1. This post in no way tends to disparage the Americans, their lifestyle or their Country. This is more about my expectations or astnoishment on Democracy and Politicans.
2. I am often sceptical of politicans :-) And I am sure what I am saying here would be true of so many other democracies.
3. Thanks for reading my blabberings :-))

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I am amused at how Kerry and Bush are campaigning for the elections. But I am appalled at the reaction of the public towards the media and the political parties.

I come from a democratic country, where election votes are purchased, robbed, rigged and whatever; the politicians talk nonsense and merely play upon the human emotions; real issues never never play a major role; it's all gimmicks. You can call it as outright cheating of the common man. Excuses: The country has lots of poor people, illiterate(read uneducated) folks, gullible people(read desparate), naive people (read stupid); weak; ill-informed; powerless...

I thought America was a different ball game. America, practically gave birth to the modern democracy (as we know it) nourished it and allowed it to flourish. [side note: Oh yeah, I know different forms of democracies existed in other ancient lands, well before :-) But let's give credit to the modern form of democracy to USA]

I am astonished to see how the Americans are letting the politicians go scott free with their mockery. Americans are not naive or gullible, because they have means to get informed from different sources. They command a lifestyle that millions of people would love to have. The American society is such a great open one. It allows different cultures to flourish with in itself. The society opens it's doors to immigrants with open arms and great hospitality. People have access to some of the greatest universities, libararies, museums, media: tv, newspapers, radio, internet. You name it America has it. And one would tend to assume, this makes the average American an all powerful-well-informed-person, and I should be pardoned to believe that an average American will not tolerate rubbish.

I know several Americans who are so well informed, so widely read, so widely travelled...the list-of-merrits go on.

But I am flabberghasted to see how the Politicans behave - both Kerry and Bush. They pass such incredulous remarks, they play so much to the audience that I can easily see it as a politican's talk. They sound so conniving and deceitful. I see whole lot of empty promises. I just see them to be power-hungry. Bush wants to hang on. Kerry seems to want an oppotunity to topple Bush. And they would do anything do achieve it.

I thought here in America, real issues would be talked, the discussions would be so invigorating and be conducted at a far higher plane. But am sad to see it is the same-old-dirty-politicking every where. I see fear-play and emotional-play.

And people are so easily polarised. Wow... I can't believe it. Less said about the media the better. To them everything boils down to viewership.

Well, humans are humans. I guess, does'nt matter where you are on the planet. Democracies have their own limitations :-( Is this what Socartes, Plato & co. talked about...Maybe.

13 replies

by oz_media

And from what I have seen, an accurate one too.

The media in the USA is haevily controlled and funded by political parties as well as the networks provide MILLIONS for campaining support, it keeps the dollars and advertisers coming in, as with many countries.

Someone just the other day had questioned HOW I would possibly get the facts straight as I am a non-American. In Canada, we get MAINLY US TV networks and even local US PBS stations (from Detroit and Washington), unless we subscribe to extended cable packages that bring in a MUCH more interesting set of channels, History, TLC, Discovery etc. that actualy have somthing worthwhile and non-political to say.

Our newspapers are also completely flooded with US political 'news', as are radio broadcasts and MUCH of the internet these days as the election nears.

So my question in response was if I ws being chastized for only using PUBLIC news sources, where is everyone else that is considered 'qualified to speak' getting thier info from?
The White House? Well that's pretty one-sided itself if not THE most biased source of all!

I think ALL Americas and other citizens around the world are forced to rely on a collection of tightly controlled and biased news, print and TV Network information and by juggling them can derive at some form of worthwhile conclusion.

Based on the fact that we ALL have the SAME sources, how can we possibly get different ideas though?

I think it comes from specific party supporters discounting MOST of what another says, if not ALL of it. Limiting thier information to US sources only and not getting a global perspective or realization on the issues by comparing various items around the world.

I know first hand that in Canada we see a MUCH different side of things than is shown on our US Networks fro example. We have seen shows on how Afghanistan has reverted to it's old ways, how the Taliban have recovered and grown again, how al-Qaeda is growing faster than EVER before, yet our US news dosn't even make a vague mention of such issues.

So I agree wholly with yuo saying that news is NOT a reliable source, Politicians CERTAINLY aren't reliable for ANYTHING nor responsible for ANYTHING they say. Who can you trust?

I think that finding a common ground with ALL sources combined helps find out which is not actually telling the whole story. Due to so many unreliable sources it is up to us to validate and read ALL sources in order to form a SOMWHAT educated opinion on issues.

We sure as heck aren't going to hear it from one source.

Great post!

by tomsal

Yep, sounds pathetic but its true...the news media in the US is heavily backed by one political party or another. Oh of course they'll never directly ADMIT it..but you'd have to be blind, deaf AND dumb to not see how OBVIOUS some papers or news shows are slanted to the left or the right.

I still remember the old joke about CBS --- The Clinton Broadcasting Station. lol.

Actually you know where I get the best news from...a little "hick town" newspaper that our little town puts out (actually its published for 4 towns, we border on one another).

Costs 25 cents a copy, graphically the paper looks like crap -- I think they use recycled paper or something and you rarely see a picture that is actually in color in it.

But some of the commentary on politics is actually quite good and they slam Kerry and they slam Bush...so I think that's pretty cool.

Other than that -- I spend little time watching channels other than the History Channel, Discovery, Comedy Central or TLC.

by j_squared

Definitly true, there are more than enough people in america that have the ability and utilities to go out and get informed, if they have the time and the motivation. But then again most people dont take up their opportunities unfortunatly. They dont have the motivation to go out and find stuff out about what they need to know to make a decision thats best for them. But there still is a considerable amount of people in the US that are not as lucky and dont have the utilities around them to use, they just go off what the media says. And it is those people that usually are ill informed and make a decision on partial information.

But yea it kinda sucks.

by j_squared

they just dont take the time out of their everyday lives to go and get informed on something so important, they either dont realize the importance or they just dont care enough to take the extra time to do research. laziness really.

by j_squared

people find pro sports more entertaining. and dont think that politics are important. They are lazy and dont want to sidetrack from there lives of fantasy football.

by thechas

It has been my observation that a large percentage of the US population chooses to be uninformed.

Examples:

Less than 1/2 the homes in my neighborhood have a subscription to the local newspaper.

We have a free weekly paper that covers local issues.
10% of homes don't even bother to take it in off of their porch.
At least another 25% immediately place it in the recycle bin.

As to radio or TV news, a large number of people just change the station when the news comes on.
Others choose what news show to watch based on the "entertainment" value of the show.
I don't recall the numbers, but a large percentage of young males get their "hard news" from comedy shows such as our late night talk shows.

Local TV stations compete on the quality of their weather and sports coverage.

Sports in the US, I admit to not understanding.
Why does the efforts of a group of millionaires playing a game for a couple of multi-millionaires, take up so much of the US male interest?
The only thought I have, is the entertainment value.

Perhaps, that is the issue. Americans choose to be entertained rather than informed.

The majority of US voters choose who to vote for based on a number of items.
Looks and presence play a much larger role than they should.

Many voters choose based on the candidates stand on a single issue.

Yes, it is sad that with all that we have available to us, the American voter makes their choice almost blindly.

Chas

by av .

I know some really smart people that have no idea what is going on in the political arena and they don't care to know. Just not interested. I'm sure many of them don't even vote because they are too wrapped up with their everyday lives to bother going to vote. Actually, thats probably better than making an uninformed choice.

Many Americans live in their own worlds and prefer to sit on the sidelines when it comes to politics. Their lives are busy enough with a blur of daily activities. They have little downtime and the downtime they do have is spent on entertainment, not politics. They are apathetic and just too busy to get involved.

With this attitude in mind, its no small wonder that our political system has suffered. The thing I can't stand the most is the mud-slinging. How can you ever have a meaningful debate if there is constant mud-slinging between the candidates and from third-party groups? Its just dirty politics. They are insulting my intelligence as well as avoiding the issues. Its an embarassment. I'm sure they do it on purpose to avoid discussing the issues. This goes for both political parties.

You're right about people voting for someone based on one issue. Their choice is not well-thought out, but at least there was some thought involved in their decision. Its not nearly enough though.

Sports are fun to watch sometimes. I enjoyed the Olympics very much this year. Some men (mostly)spend all of their time on watching sports. That would be the men or women in the crowd with their faces painted in their team's colors. Sports promotes team spirit. Its too bad that same spirit isn't present in politics.

It is sad that most people will vote uninformed or not vote at all, but I hope that the informed ones make a good decision. Our country and the world has changed and not for the better. We need real leadership with honesty and integrity.

by onbliss

Sometimes it looks liks TV has altered our priorities. I wonder if politics was the same 100 yrs ago. I am sure the politicians acted the same way. Maybe different rules then, different field, different factors to whine about.

One thing, we did not have so many medium to get informed.

by onbliss

right?
I would like to add we can't keep blaming the TV, other media, Politicians, friends, neighbors... each one of us have to take our due share of blame :-)

by admin

Yep, we need a wise Philosopher King.

Humans aren't capable en masse of even choosing what food they want unless you limit the scope to one ethnicity or "what type of burger do you want with your fries?" sorts of choices. ~LoL~

Too bad, but that is why TV and the elections are so narrow in scope- no one can handle more than a few shadows on the wall of the cave at any given time! ~LoL~ :>

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