November 8, 2016 is a day to celebrate. It is the last day the American People will be subjected to a constant bombardment of political gossip about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. The Eighth of November is the last day the America People will have to spend their day watching a thousand political ads, sifting through a hundred emails, listening to a dozen robocalls on their answering machines, and ripping up piles of junk mail that literally say nothing about how the candidates will actually make government work for the American People. Election Day will not be celebrated as the “Super Bowl” of democracy. It will be a welcome relief from the theater of the campaign trail, which is not what real politics is about.
In July of 2015, the Huffington Post decided to cover Donald Trump’s presidential bid as entertainment news instead of politics. This decision upset many, but the never ending controversies of the 2016 Presidential Election appear to justify the move. The Huffington Post was wrong in targeting Donald Trump, yet the sad truth is “politics” has become just another form of entertainment news. Instead of following the lives of A-list and B-list celebrities, politics is a perpetual realty show featuring the quotes, mishaps, and antics of P-list celebrities. Where coverage of public policy and civil discourse requires costly man-hours, political entertainment is cheap, easy, and very lucrative, but it is not what voters need or want.
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American voters have been deprived of the opportunity to choose the candidate they truly want in 2016. This is nothing new, but it is a step back from 2008 when American voters wholeheartedly embraced Barack Obama’s aspirations for change. Forced to now choose between the lesser of two evils, the American People have to ask the question: how well does the US government represent their interests. In many respects, the choice to settle for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump means the vast majority of Americans belong to political minorities that the current US political leadership does not truly represent and, more often than not, fails to serve. Turning away from election politics to the politics of governance, the American People need to embrace this reality and demand greater representation.
Obviously, politicians like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump always have diehard supporters, but many more voters are voting to keep Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton out of office. Anti-Trump voters are joining the usual anti-Right Wing effort to save the US from the instability and insecurity of a unpredictably rabble rouser while anti-Clinton voters are joining the usual anti-Left Wing effort to save the US from the status quo of a political elitist who has enriched her family and herself through her political connections. Caught in the middle of this escalated political war between Left Wing and Right Wing factions are the unrepresented majority who need government to work for them and their causes. “Answer the questions you want to answer, not the questions you are asked,” is advice that has been offered to interviewees for years. It is sage wisdom that resonates well throughout the world of business and politics. The objective is to avoid questions one cannot answer well and seize control of the conversation by offering information one wants to be the focus of the conversation. In a job interview, such wisdom allows candidates to avoid their shortcomings and emphasize their strengths. Unfortunately, avoiding tough issues and awkward subjects is also a great way to avoid problems and the solutions needed to solve those problems, which is why this prevailing wisdom is not good for our political system.
Political candidates essentially undertake a series of job interviews when they campaign. Like all good interviewees, they seek to control the “message” and frame elections around the positions that will help them attract a critical mass of voters in order to achieve victory. In doing so, politicians make the election process about themselves, instead of the issues that affect their constituents. By asking and answering the questions that the political figures want to ask and answer, the questions and concerns of voters are pushed to the back-burner. Instead of tackling the issues that voters need addressed, elected officials, in turn, pursue their political agendas and public policy priories. |
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April 2020
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