Being an honest politician is as impossible as being almost pregnant. If asked how they stand on matters of local and national importance, they fabricate evasive answers, hoping to please as many potential voters as possible on both sides of issues.
In the presidential race, wouldn’t it be great if the candidates committed themselves to the truth, and nothing more? Wouldn’t it be great if they avoided setting voters at odds with each other? Wouldn’t it be great if they refused to lower themselves to sensationalism, falsehoods, insults, fear mongering, and mudslinging?
Nowadays many candidates are nothing more than demagogic soapbox orators. Voters whose powers of intellectual discernment remain intact disregard their devious strategies as fallacious facades, but an increasing number of new voters, who may be unable to discern truth from lies because they passed through school systems where achieving mutual outcome mattered more than increasing students’ mental acuity, are easily swayed by politicians’ emotionally charged but often baseless rhetoric.
A good example is a remark made by the gold medalist of gaffes, Vice-President Joe Biden. At a recent fundraiser he said, “Republicans have changed the law so you get arrested if you do vote,” and labeled Mitt Romney as “George Bush on steroids.”
In today’s decayed, dishonest political arena, fomenting divisiveness is the modus operandi. Cultural and class warfare get the lion’s share of attention, taking precedence over problems that matter most, such as national defense, the enfeebled economy, and soaring unemployment.
Due to the relentless efforts of the mainstream media’s pusillanimous prognosticators, who can no longer even define the word objectivity, Americans are inundated with the latest news concerning homosexuality, abortion, and the evils of big corporations. They view non-stop broadcasts of the animalistic, orgiastic antics of Occupy Wall Street rabble-rousers, environmentalist whackos, gay-right activists, and other lunatic fringe groups.
Wouldn’t it be great if Americans really did live in a post-racial society — one that will never exist as long as politicians continue to play the race card? A prime example is a YouTube video now being circulated over the Internet, in which the Republican presidential candidate is slandered because he happens to be white. It states that he is so white that he makes “Wonder Bread look like pumpernickel.” Such slanders are antithetical to racial solidarity. Equally race polarizing is an organization calling itself African Americans for Obama. Imagine the outcry if a Caucasians for Romney group were created!
Politicians no longer have the integrity to respect others vying for office; they would never refer to their opponents as worthy; instead, they use the ad hominem strategy — attack the messenger, not the message. The truth is, candidates who denigrate their opponents’ personal character and achievements are, in reality, desperately trying to divert attention from their own failures and lack of character.
What if voters could make their choices based on debates between candidates, in which issues that will impact generations of Americans to come are discussed in an honest, forthright, cool-headed manner?
Wouldn’t it be great?
Jimmy Reed is an Oxford, Mississippi resident, Ole Miss and Delta State University alumnus, Vietnam Era Army Veteran, former Mississippi Delta cotton farmer and ginner, author, and retired college teacher.
This story is a selection from Jimmy Reed’s latest book, entitled The Jaybird Tales.
Copies, including personalized autographs, can be reserved by notifying the author via email (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)).
