Commercialization of Our Elections (printable)

Topic: Election 2008
Commercialization of Our Elections

Obama's victory in 2008 is being celebrated by all those who support his message of change as well as by many who believe our country has been on the wrong course and his ideals, his vision, and that of the Democratic Party are the answer. Throughout the long campaign voters were fed a marketing blitz by both major parties while many questioned on specifics could not answer why their support was for one candidate or another beyond mere sound bite replies.
by Gary Wood
(conservative libertarian)
Sunday, November 9, 2008

According to Market Watch Weekend Update the overall cost of the election will reach $5.3 billion while the presidential campaign will be $2.4 billion based on figures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics . This figure doubles the 2004 campaign and triples the 200 campaign while breaking down to an estimated cost of $10.00 per vote. There are claims by the losing side Obama is buying the presidency yet it is our failed system that allows it, no thanks to John McCain's disastrous Campaign Finance Reform legislation which did not amount to anything more than further alienation of third party and lesser known candidates. (See John Stossel's 20/20 segment to learn more.)

So what is really taking place and why are so many willing to spend so much to secure elected office? Our founders never expected to have a representative form of democracy and they truly would be shocked to see the process many of us today accept as traditional. Of course, our great-grandparents never would have imagined the extent of the commercialization of Christmas either.

A large amount of the money spent is for marketing; advertising a politician's position or (more commonly) making a quick case for why the other guy is bad and your vote should be spent with them instead. The long campaigns fill the mass media coffers while securing in the publics' mind the notion there are only a handful of viable candidates and really only two parties from which to choose. All of it is designed to mimic a consumption decision mirroring how we are marketed everything from TVs and cars to bets on a football game or horse race.

This approach has proven quite effective for the Republican and Democratic National Committees to maintain dominance over true elective processes. Beyond the fact the two parties organizationally control the federal and state legislative branches, this style of campaigning and voting insures power is maintained while locking out forever the real election process the founders developed. We buy into the traditional process and, like Christmas, we may not like the growing length of the season we still watch their high priced commercials and spend our vote as if it were a money rather than a sacred trust.

We buy a candidate's personality or rhetoric rather than investigating their principles or the real outcomes their words will lead to. We bet on a winner so we can awake the day after the final polls close and say we won, or we bet on a loser and swear we'll make a wiser bet next time. The media gathers in the cash and invests in shows that keep us blind to the fact we've lost no matter who we bet on or how we spent our vote. We also, as a majority, buy into the ridiculous premise this is how our democracy is suppose to operate, popular vote, 51% trumping 49% forgetting the corruptive nature history teaches us. Like so many who celebrate Christmas with gifts while forgetting to remember the birth of Christ we abandon our heritage and await the next season so we can do it all over again.

Fear not, the amount of profit to be had in the media and the amount of power to be maintained by these mistakenly so-called leaders insure the next season will be here soon. As a matter of fact it is so commercially profitable to the end game of domination we actually are going to see the election season run year-round unless we refuse to buy-in to the commercialization of our elections.

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2008 by Gary Wood

Columnist, radio show host, and co-founder of Hear My Thunder.

March of Liberty Radio Show

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