Sam Smith - While many politicians have been dishonest, our advertising and propaganda driven society has created a whole new culture of political deception in which the mass media willing participates. In fact, the media is far more interested in what politicians say than in what they actually do. Thus we live in a time when the leading candidate for president is considered untrustworthy by a majority of voters but it doesn't seem to matter.
There are, in fact, a number of problems. One is that to vote only for a promise is likely to produce not much more than an unfulfilled promise. Another is that, as the Review pointed out when Obama was first running for the White House, promises obscure that actual record of a candidate. It was clear fom Obama's actions and the people with whom he worked with that he was going to be far more conservative than liberals thought. But it was hard to even get the issue on the table, because these days one votes for symbols and not reality.
For Hillary Clinton to launch her campaign as a progressive makes no logical sense. For example, her comments against Citizens United are wonderful if one merely accepts her words. But if one looks at where she has gotten her money over recent years it is absurd.
Basically, one is being asked to choose promises over record. Clinton, of course, is not alone. We live in a time of political evangelism, in which politicians are converted not by the word of God but by the results of polls.
We accept what they say as gospel truth.
And pay the price for it later.
1 comment:
In a post-McCutcheon republic, no such thing as a political promise to a voter. Political promises are made to donors off the record, on secret oaths. There are pretended promises to voters, e.g., Schumer and Sanders' amendment, all sound and fury signifying nothing. In reality Dems passed CRomnibus gutting election spending limits. Disoriented Dem voters have acquired primitive beliefs indistinguishable in mythological structure from a Melanesian cargo cult. Sanders follows up with a national election tour on faux promises,like a designated losing pro wrestler putting up an inspiring fight, enough to hold the audience. We're far past the point where a John Adams or Lincoln or FDR would have addressed the need for a winning strategy.
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