Lone Star Lutheran

Issue date: 11/6/08 Section: Opinion

Jason Bye, guest columnist [Click to enlarge]

True or false? Our government is "a form of government in which the supreme power is retained and directly exercised by the people." This is Webster's definition of "democracy," and when one thinks of democracy the first country that comes to mind is the United States. But are we really living up to this title?

Barack Obama has been elected to be the next president of the United States. Though this may come as good news to some, let us not forget all of the other candidates that didn't get a fair shot, and the ills that still plague the current political platform.

Candidate image was a large part of this past election. However, candidate image is largely used in current politics as a mechanism for control. The current political platforms limit voter options and perceptions giving some candidates an unfair advantage. The malleability of candidate image misleads voters into believing that who a candidate is as a person is more important than the ideals he or she stands for.

Skirting around the issues is becoming more common in major political elections. Bipartisan candidates are more likely to sell their popularity and reputation than to actually talk about what issues matter to the public.

Incomplete or sparse delivery from television, radio, and mainstream newspapers in the past election worked to mask and confuse the position of each candidate, and fueled a possible damaged view of the candidates as they went up for election. Even cautious voters were forced to sift through seas of misleading statements, irrelevant topics, and candidate battles to get to the heart of what really matters when voting: issues of debate.

The debates lent some insight into each bipartisan candidate's position, yet presented little evidence for real change. The reason? In each major debate the candidates focused just as much on attacking each other's reputation as they did on generalizing the issues. Time that wasn't spent on useless bickering was often spent on presenting generalized salesman-like statements that had little to no value to voters deciding whom he or she would prefer as president. As a result, many of the candidates' plans relating to major issues of today's politics were never brought to full light.

Continued...

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