I’m sitting at work taking a short break after a seminar and I thought I’d start a blog. I’m sure I won’t have very much to say that will be of interest to anyone other than myself. Mostly, I just want to use it as a place to write out some of the political and scientific ideas that bounce around in my head without ever being teased out.
For example, why are people so worked up about candidates like Fred Thompson and Ron Paul not getting the same air time in debates and on the news as, say, Hillary Clinton or Rudy Guiliani? How can anyone honestly be surprised that someone who is entirely a fringe candidate, either by lack of supporters (Thompson) or by political leaning (Paul) isn’t given the same consideration as leading members of the two main parties?
It just shocks me that people think they are being cheated out of a “good candidate” by the mass media. Granted, I am the last person to play apologist to the corporate machines that are CNN/Faux News/MSNBC, but do you honestly think they have any vested interest having Clinton, Giuliani, Obama, or Romney (candidates with most air time) elected? Ron Paul is incredibly pro-corporation, so I would think any multi-national company would love to have him in the oval office. Sure, he would put a stop to government grants and subsidies to these groups, but he would also remove government restrictions on advertising and profits.
Why have some people become so enamored with the idea of a black-horse candidate? Basically, I think it boils down to frustrated people who are easily taken advantage of. Americans are angry at the Republics for instigating war and corruption on a scale we haven’t seen in decades, and are becoming even angrier at the hollow promises of the Democrats in Congress. What better time for some loosely-affiliated candidate to come out and say “Hey, everyone! Follow me, I’m different than them!”. Sure, some people may go along with it (about 2% in the case of Ron Paul and less than 1% for Thompson), but ultimately, those frustrated people end up just shaking their heads and picking the lesser of two evils in the next election, rather than waste a vote on a candidate who won’t win.
It’s times like these that I wish we had a parliamentary system rather than a Congress. At least in parliament, the Ron Paul wackos would get a few seats and we could all point and laugh when their idealistic libertarianism collapses under the weight of reality. But then I’m also a vindictive.
