Politics: Quick Hits

Since the election is a couple of days away, I thought I'd offer a couple quick thoughts on related subjects.

Meg Whitman has fallen behind Jerry Brown in the Governor's race by about ten points, according to a recent poll. Other polls also show Brown ahead of Whitman. If you are familiar with my blog, you know that I do not support her candidacy, however the reasons why most experts seem to think she is falling behind have nothing to do with the reasons why I feel she is unfit for the position.

Rather than voters being upset with her platforms and proposals, they seem to be more concerned with personality, or lack thereof. The Los Angeles Times wrote that Whitman "is running on resume, not biography, to an extent rarely seen in modern politics." That is actually one of the few aspects of Whitman's campaign that I find to be admirable, but the Times article (as well as this article from Slate) suggest that it is actually one of the biggest factors behind her declining support.

Voters don't really know much about Meg Whitman personally, and what they do know reflects poorly on her, and that seems to be why many of them are deciding to vote for Brown. While this isn't surprising, it's still very depressing. In a perfect world, voters would have their choice between numerous qualified candidates from across the political spectrum. Of course, our world is far from perfect, and most voters find themselves choosing the 'lesser of two evils.' This election certainly fits that description, as everyone I know (including myself) seems to either be voting for Brown primarily because he's better than Whitman, or vice versa. But it adds an extra layer of cynicism to know that the reason why someone would choose against Whitman is for purely superficial reasons having to do with her presentation of her personal life. I know our culture is dominated by advertising and many of our decisions and actions are superficially-based, but this is still a depressing development.

On a related note, Steve Pearlstein, in an article in the Washington Post, writes about how the Democrats impending election losses stem from their inability to communicate and the voters' inability to understand the economic realities facing the country. He recounts the ways that the prevailing opinions do not correspond with the truth regarding economic matters:

"Most Americans still think that the bailouts of the banks, the auto companies and American International Group will wind up costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. In fact, the latest guess is that the government will come out even on the deal, and may even turn a profit.

Many Americans think that the economic stimulus package has been a failure. In fact, the estimates from a wide range of experts say the stimulus has saved or created more than 3 million jobs.

Many Americans believe their federal taxes have gone up in the past two years. In fact, for 90 percent of households, taxes were temporarily cut.

After the headlines of the past few weeks, most Americans probably think government has been able to do little, if anything to stem the tidal wave of foreclosures. In fact, over the past 18 months, two mortgages have been modified to avoid foreclosure for every completed foreclosure."

As with the information about Whitman, this is not particularly surprising while being eminently depressing. It is hard not to become cynical when reading stories like this. We could blame the media for misleading (and occasionally even lying to) the public, the voters for being stupid, the Republicans for exploiting this stupidity at the expense of America's well-being, or the Democrats for failing to save us from ourselves, but the fact of the matter is this does not bode well for our country's future. Unfortunately, I think it would be a mistake for us to expect the public to become properly informed on their own.

Most people just don't have the means to understand all of the issues that face our country and the world at a given time. People have to work, take care of their families, run errands, etc. And many people don't have access to the necessary information or the knowledge to interpret that information. This is one of the primary reasons we have our form of representative government. It is also why it is so important for the media to be objective and honest. The media has a responsibility to inform us, and the government has a responsibility to serve the greater good. While some may argue that it is the responsibility of the voters to hold the government accountable for its actions, one must also consider the fact that many, many people are, simply, stupid.

This morning, I woke up to my next door neighbor ranting and raving about how she can't find a job and how she can't receive welfare to take care of herself and her son. The woman is crazy, and often says things that are utterly ridiculous*, but there was something she said this morning that seemed particularly relevant. She was discussing how upset she was with Obama's handling of issues affecting poor people when she said that she felt that Ronald Reagan was the best president of her lifetime. She extolled his virtues relating to welfare and helping poor people, which I found to be equal parts funny and disturbing as it simply isn't true. Hell, the man coined the term "welfare queen". And yet, somehow my neighbor is under the extremely mistaken impression that Ronald Reagan had done more to help poor people than any other recent president. She is exactly the type of person who allows herself to be misled, leading to the type of widespread wrongness that Pearlstein describes in his article.

After reading the article, I forwarded it to my mother and my aunt with a note about how depressed I get when I read those types of stories. I don't know if there is any other way to react when reading or hearing about these sorts of problems. The problems our country faces are dire and it will take some serious work on everyone's part to fix them and alleviate the suffering they cause. But if the voters are allowing themselves to be misled, and the media and the government are exploiting this facet of the electorate, it is incredibly difficult to be hopeful for the future.


*One of my favorites was the time she yelled at her son for swearing at her. She said something like, "You should respect your mother. Every black person in America knows that. You're acting like a white person right now."