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The Election Season Pinocchios
By Al
Ruechel | 10-09-02
No, I do not believe all politicians
are liars! But I also believe that it’s become common practice
during the election season to stretch the truth about as long as
Pinocchio’s nose. And nobody seems too upset about it because we
pass it off as politics as usual. As in life, it’s all those little
fibs and tweaks and spins that make the public cynical wondering if
there is such as thing as an honest politician.
For example, politicians will tell you, when you interview them,
that they don’t believe in negative advertising and won’t get
involved in mudslinging. Yet, campaign managers will show you
example after example of how negative mudslinging has turned
election after election. It defines or brands a candidate polarizing
voters, which is what politicians want, even if they won’t say it.
I’ve actually sat in on a focus group where voters said they hated
the use of phrases like liberal and conservative to describe
candidates. Yet, when you asked them why they prefer certain
candidates they themselves will use those terms in describing their
preference. So who’s the liar here?
Then there’s the phrase “raided social security” which has become a
Democratic mantra. I guess we’re all supposed to closer our eyes and
imagine the Republican candidate dressed up like a pirate with a
blood soaked dagger in their teeth straddling the carcass of a
senior citizen. Here’s a fact from the government accounting office:
it’s standard business operating procedure both on the state and
federal level to place social security funds in with general revenue
so it can be used for general revenue purposes. There is no such
thing as putting social security in some kind of mythical lock box.
It’s doesn’t exist. All politicians have been raiding social
security for as long as social security has existed because it’s
cheaper to use or borrow excess social security money than going out
and borrowing money at higher interest rates to pay for other
government programs from other sources. Duh!
And since when does Hillary or Bill Clinton have anything to do with
state or local politics? I was the moderator of a local commission
race and one of the candidates accused the other of trying to pull a
Hillary with the counties health insurance coverage. Say, what? Yet,
if you listen to the Republicans Hillary has a hotline to every
Democrat in the world. And I hate to break it to you, all
politicians are involved in the process of taxing and spending
because that’s essentially what the government does. Where do you
think the government gets its money, from a bake sale or selling
widgets?
Here are some other notions we are supposed to swallow: Republicans
don’t care about children. The unions control democrats. There is no
such thing as a black republican. Only the democrats speak for
working families. Republicans are controlled by big business and big
oil. Democrats want total government control of all programs.
Campaign finance reform solved all the evils of the election
process. All of these statements are false but have become accepted
in the lexicon of the election season.
The truth is politicians rely heavily on stereotypes. If they can’t
get you to remember the good things about them maybe they can touch
a nerve and get you to feel negatively about their candidate.
They’re scratching for your emotions. They use classic hot button
appeals that have been used since George Washington’s time. They
don’t want you to think through an issue. Most voters make their
decisions about their candidates from their heart and not from their
brain.
That’s another reason all these Pinocchio’s are able to get away
with promising you the moon and barely delivering a moon pie. We
tend to react to what they say they are going to deliver versus what
they can actually deliver. We don’t want to know what a program is
going to cost or how it’s going to be paid for, just tell me you’re
in favor of it and you’ve got my vote.
That’s how Florida voters approved a high-speed bullet train. The
idea seemed so cool until you realize that it could cost 300-billion
dollars to build plus cost you up to 30-bucks just to ride from
Tampa to Orlando. And the same thing is happening with a new
amendment to reduce class sizes in this state. Right now voters
favor the amendment almost two to one. It sounds so, so, so right.
Never mind it will cost 20 to 50 billion dollars to implement and
there’s no guarantee test scores will go up or there will be enough
teachers to fill the positions or that teachers’ salaries may have
to be slashed to pay for the additional teachers that must be hired.
It’s about emotion and denial and getting your way with your vote.
So it becomes one giant circle game. Politicians who stretch the
truth, use stereotypes, make wild promises, and use negative
advertising are rewarded with victories from voters who deceive
themselves, react from their hearts, fail to analyze the cost and
can’t see their own noses growing longer than the Pinocchios they
end up electing.
Al Ruechel, copyright 2002, all
rights reserved
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