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Time to Stop Deciding Who “Won”
The one thing that is clear from the most recent elections and those that occurred a year ago is that the people of this country want our elected officials to stop playing the political game, to stop worrying about whether the Democrats or Republicans “won” or “lost” and start to solve the critical problems that they care about.
I for one abhor the constant discussion on TV, radio, blogs and in print about which side is winning on this or that issue, election or policy debate. The issues, I suppose, are too complex for the mainstream media to understand.
Mostly, though, I think it is just a lot more fun for the political reporters to pretend for a time that they are ESPN sports junkies reporting in SportCenter wittiness on wins, losses and the performances of the participants. Top plays. Web gems. Hilarious miscues, errors and bloopers.
Alas, whether or not the future of our country and the world depends on intelligent action in Washington, the discussion continues to center around whether each event was a win or a loss for Barrack Obama.
Sure we have an unwieldy federal deficit, millions of uninsured Americans, drug battles with Mexican kingpins, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, an impending energy crisis, and the possibility of Global Warming creating tremendous human chaos, not to mention the economy and unemployment, but clearly the critical point is how each politician rates in terms of wins and losses.
And, of course, wins are not measured by whether we solve any of these problems. No, they are measured by rhetoric in the House, battles over details in the Senate, local elections, speeches, interviews, and whatever the pundits decide merit placement on the scorecard. And somehow, pushing these important policy issues forward seldom seems to make it on the list.
I wonder who really is causing the gridlock in Washington. I blame it all on ESPN.
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8 Responses to “Time to Stop Deciding Who “Won””
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Who won in the NYC Mayoral race? I hope it was the people that go by the way of law. Bloomberg (whom I voted for in his prior races) spent $100mill and didn't trounce his rival who spent , I think $10mill. I think it was because of Bloomberg's ignoring the term-limits we NYC residents voted for, was either not voted for (my case) or because people voted for his opponent. Can't be sure, but I think voters don't like Chavez/Bloomberg type maneuvers. I don't think there will be too many more moves like this unless you have a tremendous lead and tons of money.
I've heard it referred to as “horse race” reporting. That often seems to fit pretty well.
I think the ESPN analogy is close, but the talking heads talking politics are what are known as “Homers.” The right spins all arguments toward a conservative “win,” and the left does the same. ESPN announcers tend to see all sports as either east coast or west coast, and regularly ignore the fly over country in the middle, but I digress.
It's this political one-ups-manship that keeps most Americans blissfully unaware of the real problems and any real solutions to those problems. You'd almost think it was designed that way.
We have weekday evening (prime time, such as on CNN) appearances that rival those on Sunday morning shows that have long been tiresome political opportunism displays.
Obviously there are current problems that involve not only Obama, but also the Congressional Dems and their misconduct and overreach. But the nation-wide problems that preoccupy Americans everywhere range beyond merely this; the GOP isn't constituting (or more correctly, offering) a serious alternative at this time. The Dems have some soul-searching as well as homework to do (and they'll be torn between correcting their wretched excesses and being pressured to do more, not less, of this, by “progressives”), while the GOP (and prominent conservative commentators) still cannot expect another 1994 next year.
Hilarious. I'm sure the Phillies are saying the same thing about the World Series.
I think nedlips is exactly right.
I don't know who won, but I know the American people are losing.