Memphians have been speciously fearful after seeing a flurry of McCain/Palin stickers around East Memphis recently. It’s likely because people in Memphis see themselves as having made some kind of benefit from the last 8 years of failed policies by the Bush administration and the Republican-controlled congress. Memphians who support the Obama/Biden ticket shouldn’t be afraid; they should be enthused by what is going on.
The candidates themselves are making the case for an Obama/Biden win through their own actions.
I’m wondering if it could be that the generation of my parents see McCain as a celebratory representative of what people are capable of doing even at age 72. While I respect the desire to identify with a candidate based on a superficial notion, using this reasoning to support a candidate is pretty frightening; age, or lack of age, is not a reason to select someone to be a leader of a country.
Of course, it could be that people cling to the soundbites that speak to supporting their notions. So-called “media bias” has become a talking point of the McCain campaign, used to support the idea that favorable coverage is being doled out to Obama and Biden. I agree that the media is culpable in this situation; and, by the same token, so-called “right-wing” media frequently, as Big Brother is want to, distort the facts and only focus on the pieces of soundbites that make their candidate look good.
Why wouldn’t they? There is a tendency by the media to focus positively on the Obama/Biden ticket, and with good reason: they have made themselves available. Palin’s two horrific interviews and McCain’s continued need to quote half-truths and lambast us with his record as a war hero are really just the kind of fuel that highlights what make Obama and Biden the clear winners in the upcoming election.
Republicans should rightly feel scared right now. Every time she opens her mouth, Sarah Palin becomes more and more a caricature of herself and a greater liability to McCain. To make matters worse, Tina Fey’s hilarious (and incredibly accurate) comedic portrayal of the governor isn’t helping; as MSNBC mentioned today, merely repeating the words that Palin said to Katie Couric in her interview last week (which happened on this weekend’s Saturday Night Live) is in and of itself a source of humor. McCain and Palin clearly are split on their own issues, and Palin has shown us she is obviously confused, distracted, and unable to communicate the talking points that the party is grilling into her.
McCain and Palin, speaking to Katie Couric about her comments to a voter on Pakistan, made the situation even more dire for the Republican ticket. During the interview, McCain stepped in and took the lead from Palin in response to Couric’s questions to the governor. They’re very far down in polling, by 5-8 percentage points across the board. Palin is being debriefed repeatedly in order to prepare for a debate on Thursday which pundits and voters already see as a slam dunk for Joe Biden. There are rumblings from the right wing asking for Palin to be removed from the ticket and replaced with someone who demonstrates more stability and ability.
For their part, Obama and Biden are taking every opportunity to let the soundbites and gaffes speak for themselves.
So with this mountain of evidence piling up, demonstrating the frightening realities of a Republican win in November, what’s with all the stickers East Memphis? Are you seriously better off now than you were 8 years ago?
Regardless of what we do, Tennessee has been labeled a red state by the media. Tennesseeans, and Memphians, probably accept this and feel like they are already marginalized. Nothing could be further from the truth. A strong showing by the Obama/Biden ticket on election day could do a lot to turn the media’s attention to how the larger crises in the United States have impacted the voting populace of our state.
I think that the focus on soundbites, angry rhetoric, one-liners and throwing punches by the Republican party and the political fabric of the media are merely pillars of a general belief that voters in the South are stupid enough to support anything they say because it carries the word “Republican” or “Democrat”.
I think these people who ignore the lies, ignore the half-truths and support their candidate no matter what really believe that you and me, well…we’re a bunch of dumb yokels down here in the South. They likely think that Memphis isn’t much of a city. Perhaps they tell themselves (and others) that Tennessee is really populated by a bunch of nincompoops who can’t think for themselves.
In every lie, there is a wish: that by telling the lie, it will somehow make it true. I find that more insulting than seeing the media slant favorably towards one candidate or the other. But there’s no better way to feed into their slant than to vote for your party’s candidate even though you don’t agree with the way they’re behaving or what they’re saying. You know the lies are there, and you can’t just throw up your future to someone whom you know is associated with a legacy of failed policy that has led to economic disaster.
The Dow Jones closed down -777 points today. The President is scheduling an address to the country for 7:45am EST tomorrow morning. We are spiraling towards another great depression, and everyone can sense it.
No matter how the right wing or left wing media tries to slant the talking points and jabs in favor of their candidate, there’s no denying that the Republican party has controlled the White House since 2001 and controlled Congress from 2000-2006, the formative years of deregulation which have led to this economic disaster.
If we don’t vote for the Democratic candidate, aren’t we saying that we’re okay with the way things are going?
So go ahead, Memphians. Sticker away with slogans of “Country First”. Show your support for McCain/Palin. Sip the kool-aid of your right-wing analysts and talk show hosts. All you’re going to do is end up wishing you’d saved yourself the trouble of figuring out how to scrape it off your bumper without scratching your car on November 5th.
