We’ve still several months to go before the field of would be Presidential Candidates resolves to its final form. The hold-outs and drop-offs are being scored as the media circus ramps-up to orchestrate what will most assuredly be, for some, yet another demonstration of democracy’s shining moment of political hyperbole-in-progress.
Already the news outlets, either in print or broadcast, make comparisons of personality and appearances though scant inquiry as to policy and even less to practice. I’m quite certain they are committed to appearing polished, conscientious and erudite after all the people will make their decisions based on the message they construct, willingly or otherwise. That is of course the understanding although I possess a bit of curiosity which peaks of interest from time to time regarding a few rather indiscriminant and seemingly less consequential issues. The few:
- The U.S. Economy continues to falter with no signs of a surgical response to forestall further degradation.
- Federal and State Budgets continue to impale efforts toward reconstituting any recovery agenda and considerations for a connection to the failing economic structure as a causal force becomes increasingly obscure.
- The U.S. Stock Markets continue to cycle between total collapse and the latest report suggesting that a new economic boom is a foot.
- U.S. Monetary Policy continues to rely on the political first-aid kit which for its own demands finds bandages and mercurochrome increasingly in short supply.
- U.S. Foreign Policy continues to stretch well beyond all things reasonable as the Secretary of State and the President continue to temp what even the casual observer will consider as a deliberate step toward direct confrontation with China and Russia all the while ignoring Iran and Venezuela’s Mr. Chavez enterprising venture whereby Iran will build missile-sites, bunkers and command and control structures for Venezuela.
Though the faces may have changed and 70-plus years have passed, it seems like 1930’s America or as the great Yogi Berra opined, “it’s déjà vu all over again!”
“The old become new, the new becomes future epilogue and the evidence of past failings becomes less conspicuous awaiting discovery once again.”
To my personal observations it does seems as if the locomotive has left the station without an engineer bound for a destination not presently served by the current rail system. We’ve been passengers on this consist before; passengers believing in a destination while in search of an Engineer who they hope will somehow provide a set of tracks that will take them where they want to go.
So what of the role of the media and how do we filter through what is inevitably a ratings machine driven by both the lust for viewership-at-any-price as well as the ignominious taxonomy of a nation under something as defiantly specious as party line. Oh come now, did you really think Mr. Trump was running for President? Trump was running for Trump and he continues an amazing record for successfully adapting to the media’s insatiable appetitive for the salacious nonsense it uses to tease the public. Sadly, Fox News merely provided him a ready-to-wear forum of hopefuls looking for someone, ANYONE who might shake up the stated agenda of the seemingly predictable.
Now then, under the topic of the not-to-be-forgotten, I would be remiss in failing to credit the Trumptress for providing topical advantage to center stage Presidential humor at the White House Correspondence Dinner or CNN, MSNBC and the soon-to-be-lately Network News each of which were quite successful in driving their own segmented audience in to a state of hypoxia.
Question: Why is it so difficult to address the public with a faithful degree of precision of on-topic and equally relevant issues? What is the reason for the complete abandonment of journalistic/investigative inquiry on critical subjects? If we take a quick look at a few of the examples reference above, the top tier questions of choice, are none of these suitably relevant issues upon which to quiz a candidate and are any of these issues confined only to party affiliation? The answer to each of these is quite simple and in point of fact, the answer to each is the same: The process is not about the best possible choice, it is about what ultimately becomes the Third & Fourth Choices! It appears to me that the best possible options, be they candidates or questions, will never become a matter of choice.
Pay close attention to the Political Coverage for 2012. Watch for selective apportionment of the benign and meaningless and little on the substance of relevant issues. The questions that will be asked will not be those which require thoughtful and decisive responses. No, those will be avoided at all cost because they are the accountable questions, the ones that become sound-bites for the opposition. The accountable questions are critical in nature and each require of a candidate to actually understand the issue. Moreover, they require that a reporter or host actually have a command of the subject sufficient to craft an appropriate question and to be able to identify a less than astute response.
It is more often the case that we don’t receive valid and relevant information as to the qualifications of a candidate as it would require a caliber of individual capable of formulating a cogent and appropriately precise question! Whatever the case may be it is becoming more and more clear to many that whether it is the media that has morphed to conform to the political process or it is the political process that has conformed to fit the underperforming media circus, the fact remains that the public is receiving what amounts to be nothing more than the Third & Fourth Choices from which to choose from and to my rather curious form of thinking, that’s no choice at all!
From my recent article, Opposing Compliance¸ an extraordinarily relevant excerpt:
“It is time we make a decision. It is time we begin to once again rally around a common ideal. It is time that in lieu of turning toward the expectation that government will suddenly discover conscience and reconstitute itself from within we turn to our faith in the sovereignty of uniform opposition. Yes, it is time to begin Opposing Compliance by not asking for justices but by refusing to be complicit in the processes that enables injustice.”
I continue to believe that as a People we are far better than the choices being offered would otherwise suggest. I am also considerate of the fact that perhaps we are becoming weary with the process and that far too many are moving toward apathy in favor of believing that there is no longer an ideal worthy of the effort. I can think of no greater challenge to the hearts and minds of a People than the purer form of purpose which calls upon ones sense of valor; it is the unspoken word of action in those who appear when the need is greatest and never considered the cost. It is implicitly understood that the stagnant waters of apathy are repugnant; the price of which should never be paid as a matter of choice.
“The Good of the People is the Greatest Law.” Cicero
Curtis C. Greco, Founder
