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Turn of the Screw

08/02/2012

“Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power” (Benjamin Franklin)

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives” (James Madison)

“There’s a sucker born every minute” (P.T. Barnum)

Here’s some sage advice that should be applied by every person who is going to vote in the upcoming elections. I’d like to add another: “I don’t know everything, just enough to know when I’m about to be screwed”.

It seems to me that personal truths and personal pride have become the bargaining chips for swaying votes. Every politician tries to appeal to your sense of outrage over how the other candidate has lied to you or how they will insult your pride by pushing some viewpoint. Both left and right try to conjure up images of a bogey-man who will attack you in the middle of the night and destroy what you hold dear. In their defense, if voters aren’t smart enough to see when they’re being sold a bad bill of goods, why should they stop?

I hate being sold anything. When I go into a car showroom, I want to to look myself and ask questions when I’m ready. If a salesperson approaches me, I try to stare them down. What makes them think that I want them to sell me something?

The influence of advertising on the American psyche has created a population that begs to be sold to. The public has lost the ability to listen dispassionately to facts and draw conclusions. Thus, the candidates treat them like a servile class that needs pictures to understand every issue. So, if an issue likes taxes isn’t making the impact they want, they create ads that appeal to the base desires of greed and avarice to generate outrage in voters who someday may be rich even though that day will likely never come. The masses buy this sales job and parrot the message as an attack on them even though it really isn’t.

Locally, we have the issue of rail and the message is, “rail doesn’t benefit you and it takes your tax dollars away.” They cite polls showing disapproval and a route that only goes from Kapolei to Downtown Honolulu as a reason to vote for a candidate against it. Again, this appeals only at a personal level. They fail to say that voters already approved rail. That the 1/2% sales tax is a minuscule amount of money to just about everyone. Or, that making public policy based on polls is anathema to democracy where decisions are made at the ballot box or by duly elected representatives.

When you go to vote, don’t be that sucker. Look for candidates who make sense, try to listen to voters, and will act in the best interest of everyone; not just you. When they say, “trust me“, be afraid.

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Campaigns and Money

08/01/2012

The campaign season is in full swing and, as usual, money is at the heart of the ability to reach voters with a message. A recent article in The Atlantic highlights the issue of campaign contribution reform as an endless cycle that ends up doing nothing to fix the problem. As a prime example, in spite of more and more regulation,

“Since 1974, total congressional campaign spending has gone from $77 million an election cycle to $1.8 billion (in 2010). You decide whether that sounds like success.“

For the cynical, money contributed to a candidate equals access. More money buys more and better access. I call this cynical because, at the end of the day, every elected official is accountable at the ballot box. If voters continue to re-elect people they think are being bought by special interests, how are government regulations going to stop it? If these cynics really wanted to point out spurious behavior, they should point the finger at the voting public.

Granted, an incumbent has a huge advantage because they can grab free media time in the normal course of their duties. Then again, if an elected official is doing the peopleʻs work and gets seen on TV, is that necessarily a bad thing? And, if they are passing and defending laws that only benefit those who contributed money to their campaigns, isnʻt it the responsibility of the voter to recognize the breach of trust? Shouldnʻt an opponent take the opportunity to use this as a campaign strategy to show the public how they would do better?

The issue doesnʻt just apply to the presidential race. It affects races at the state and county level too. That just adds another layer of complexity when federal, state, and city rules are not consistent. Again, it is up to the voter to pay attention to where money is coming from, how it is spent, and who would benefit from the actions of an elected official. Who said being a responsible voter was easy?

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