Liberals vs. Conservatives
The simple facts are that you win elections by defining the other guys as either for or against something, make blanket sweeping statements about them and then get millions of people to spread the lies, or at the very best, half truths.
As children we are brought up in school playing sports on one team or another. The concept is further propagated in sports like soccer or baseball or football or some other sport that happens as a function of school or after school.
We learn young through pep-rally’s and cheer squads and alike. We in fact make signs that say crush, kill or other wise destroy the competition. The other side or team does this as well. We are in fact programmed to be competitive at an early age and it carries with us the rest of our days.
We pick our sides on the political battlefield as well. We don’t want to be confused with the facts; we just want our “guy” to win. We will go door to door, make thousands of phone calls, even go to rally’s carrying on the tradition of “kill crush destroy” the other team.
I have made the analogy many times that it is simple a matter of Shirts vs. Skins and most people have lost sight of the fact that it is not about that, but the character of the individual.
This last election Obama won because their side painted the other side in a bad light. They in fact defined Romney as the problem and his policies would put us back into those problems, he is a rich guy and does not care about the little guy and so forth.
They painted Ryan as right wing nut job who would keep all women at home barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen and would throw grandma off the cliff!
The smear campaigns were ruthless and over a Billion Dollars was spent to win this election. I can think of a lot of hungry people who would have benefited from a billion dollars.
Not unlike the super Bowl, one side is giddy and the other side is downhearted.
While politics is an ugly game, and it is a game; the real losers were all Americans.
Why do I say this?
The issues that were the real issues of this last 4 years were not addressed. They in fact were swept under the rug by a very clever and expensive PR campaign that knew exactly how to manipulate the American voter. The GOP having everything they needed to win this election “the last 4 years” did not capitalize on it as they constantly had to defend the lies. Truthfully the facts of the last four years should have been all any voter needed.
A voters mind gets made fairly quickly. Most people do not spend much time getting the facts. Who can blame them, we are working more than forty hours a week, trying to keep food on the table, fill up our cars with gas as well as keep a roof over our heads.
I know people who cannot afford to heat their house over 50 degrees in the winter time. These are working people! I know people who work 60 odd hours a week at two jobs and still have no money left over to put into savings in case of emergency.
Americans are hurting and that is one of the issues that should have been addressed.
We can no longer afford to be loyal to a party. We the people need to vet these candidates better. Candidates will often change party if the constituents in their district change demographically. That should tell you that they are not even loyal to the party.
We have seen congressmen change party giving the other side an advantage. Voting the party line is bad for America.
We are manipulated at every turn in the road. We are manipulated by news Medias that unfairly slant a story one way or another either by embellishing the facts or by omitting some facts or simply by not covering it at all.
We are manipulated by Hollywood; from HBO series to movies that play to one party or the other.
Our children our manipulated by shows that have some agenda in them.
How do you know when you are being manipulated? For one thing manipulating can be done in many ways. First and foremost is to play on your emotions. If I show a devastated forest with dead animals, empty and discarded trash and evidence of pollution I have effectively made you susceptible to my message of recycling and anti-factories and anti-capitalism and so forth. If I wanted to make an argument against coal I might create an advertisement or even a movie that had this in it. The Lorax comes to mind.
If I made a commercial or movie that showed thousands of people in the street, starving, inadequately fed clothed or sheltered and then showed some fat cats looking out from their ivory towers lighting cigars with $100 bills; I could go anywhere with that. I could blame big government or I could blame capitalist. Whatever the message, I could sway voters.
Guess what, you are a victim of manipulation on a daily basis.
The trick is to know when you are being manipulated. Once you know how, knowing when gets a little easier.
To win an election first you remind people of simpler times. You remind them of $1 gallon gas, and inexpensive groceries. You then convince people that all of their misfortunes in life are the fault of the other guy and or his party. The one who has the most money to spend and gets their ads on TV in swing states early and often defining the other guy as the nemesis, wins! It really is that simple.
There is little difference between either party. They are in Washington or where have you, living like kings, while we the peasants “more like the stepford wives” sing their praises. We tweet for them, we argue with one another and we call one another names all in the name of our loyalties to the party. We don’t know history so we don’t learn from it.
The problems in this country can be fixed but we the people first have to realize what the problems are, so we can address them. Those who think that they know will argue and they may even take their shirts off so we can draw delineation between the shirts and the skins. The simple facts are that this is not a sporting event. When someone will spend $19 million of their own money to try and get a job that pays $174K per year; there is something wrong! The system is flawed and needs repair and it starts with us the people.
They work for us and are accountable to us. We need to get the facts and hold them accountable. I would start by boycotting news media outlets that slant the news one way or another. We disserve the news that is the truth. We need a news agency that does not have a dog in the fight that cannot be corrupted by money or bribed with one on one interview in the oval office. Demand better! In this case vote with your remote!
I welcome polite and civil discourse on this or any subject on this blog. -Best
TheTimeDok 