Pages

Categories

Meta


« VPOTUS Debate | Main | Sarah Palin »

Political Accountability

By Michelle | October 5, 2008

I’ve tried to keep this blog more-or-less politically neutral (i.e. not writing about my own political leanings), but I fear that as we near election day, this is going to be increasingly difficult to keep up. First, perhaps I’m hopelessly naive, but I’d like to think that politicians (especially those running for our country’s highest offices) have a obligation to the American people to not bend the truth so much that it’s essentially a lie. After all, aren’t we supposed to be a model of mature democracy?

Second, are US voters so lazy or ill-informed that they’re willing to swallow campaign propaganda hook, line, and sinker? The internet makes fact-checking so easy these days — meaning that chances are, someone else has already done the work for you, and their results are posted somewhere online. But I suppose that charisma still counts for something as well, and people tend to be swayed more by emotionally-charged words than cold, hard facts. More’s the pity for the future of our country.

Third, party platforms and personal policies aside, I think what worries me the most about politics these days is the willingness of some campaigns to resort to fear tactics in order to increase their voter support. People can point fingers at each other and debate endlessly about who’s more “patriotic,” but personally, I can hardly think of anything less patriotic than undermining the very basis for our democratic system. We should vote because we support one ticket over the other, not because we’ve been cornered there out of fear.

In the midst of our current financial situation, my mind keeps returning to FDR who took office in the shadow of the Great Depression and whose New Deal reforms (though still controversial) brought the US back from the brink of fiscal ruin. In his now famous 1932 inaugural address, FDR reassured the American people that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” In his 1941 State of the Union FDR also the “four essential human freedoms,” which included “freedom from fear.”

Don’t we have a responsibility, as citizens of a democracy, to hold our leaders accountable to such democratic ideals? We should not put up with emotional statements that brandish the threat of “terrorism” to scare voters. And as voters we should be sophisticated enough to see through such statements.

Topics: Uncategorized |

Link Summary

Comments