Isn’t it insane that our elections are essentially exercises in Madison Avenue marketing? I think watching the latest ads by the McCain camp have really hit home for me how much our political process has descended to the level of snake oil salesman since the rise of the TV age. The ads aren’t even necessarily targeted at undecided voters as much as they are aimed at our political media which now cover politics with the same rabid disregard for substance and truthfulness as gossip columnists, the National Enquirer, and Drudge employ to cover entertainment and sports celebrities. The general ignorance of so many Americans about the true state of the world means that the visual appeal of ads and the images they present operate to influence elections far more than in the past. What used to be a process dominated by verbal and printed appeals is now one far more oriented visceral and irrational appeals to prejudice and raw emotion. It’s why we get campaigns that focus on “staying on message” (Obama’s “hope and change” stump speech is a perfect example) and why the term “photo op” has become not only part of our political lexicon, but an overused, if still relevant, cliche, of which everyone anywhere in ‘Merika knows the definition.
Not to say that the electoral process that occurred prior to the invention of our mass visual media infrastructure was ideal, but can you see a third party like the early 20th century Socialists having a candidate of the quality of Eugene Debs in this day and age? Debs polled 6% of the vote in 1912, and prominent socialists actually won Congressional seats and local elective offices. As did the Progressive Party in which Phillip La Follette won the governorship of Wisconsin and other party members served in Congress during the 1930’s-1940’s. Bernie Sanders is the only remaining example of this now ancient movement currently serving in Congress. In a Parliamentary system, progressive and liberal Democrats like Kucinich, Wexler, McKinney, etc. would have their own separate party and a much greater ability to influence policy in leftist coalition governments than they do now as part of the “big tent,” “mass marketed” and “one size fits all” Democratic Party which since the 1980’s has essentially been a captive of Big Business, despite its protestations to the contrary.
The sad truth is that we really don’t know what kind of President a President Obama would be if he wins. Hillary would have been an extension of the DLC faction upon whose agenda her husband rode to power, and their core of K Street lobbyists, more concerned with gaining and holding political power than effecting truly progressive policies to help people. McCain is also simply one more classic GOP stooge for Big Business, a man who will support the programs and policies that his CEO and lobbyist buddies and advisers like Phil Graham have advocated over the last 40 plus years, the same policies of free trade and deregulation which have destroyed the wealth and influece of the middle class.
Obama? We honestly don’t know. He’s running as a centrist/populist/technocrat/outsider, but will he be more like Bill Clinton (a pseudo Republican), JFK (who governed as a far more conservative and conventional figure than many realize) or FDR (a true political innovator)? I can’t tell you. All we can be certain of is that his campaign staff is media savvy, internet savvy, and doing their best to make him appear non-offensive and likable to white voters, and, lets be honest, a celebrity. As to what programs he would actually pursue in terms of domestic and foreign policies, we can only speculate about. We know what he’s said in certain speeches, and we know what his campaign ads have emphasized, but do we really know what is in his heart? I fear we are being seduced by his glamor and charisma, without really knowing what he will do once he attains the power and position of our current Dunce-in- Chief. As our country and world teeters toward economic collapse and and an ever more dangerous international situation dominated by the issues of climate change, genocide, plagues, famines, droughts, energy dependence on fossil fuels and violent military action rather than diplomacy as the primary method of solving foreign policy dilemmas by nation states, one can only hope that the change he preaches about on the stump has something more behind it than mere rhetoric.
