Surviving election campaign time requires patience, research of issues and a little bird watching
The political world is engaging in its first round of shiny and ultimately semi-pointless theater at the Democratic National Convention, which started Monday and lasts until Wednesday. Held at the Pepsi Center in Denver, the convention ends with Sen. Barack Obama accepting the nomination at Mile High Stadium at Invesco Field. The Republicans follow with their convention six days later where it will be fascinating to see if any Republican Congress members attend and what type of nonsensical oddities will come out of Vice President Dick Cheney.
As a result of the increase in political interest among people our age, I figured I’d give those new to presidential politics a few tips to help your journey to November and beyond.
For starters, you will never learn anything listening to a political strategist from either party.
They talk and talk and talk for minutes on end about worthwhile subjects like health care and economics. In the end though, you have only a vague idea of what they’re trying to say. You scratch your head and wonder when “Family Guy” is coming on.
Secondly, the best avenue to find out who these candidates are is through their campaign Web sites. I hate to further shovel more dirt on the rusted, broken-down machine known as the “mainstream media,” but I will. Spending 15 or 20 minutes reading over a candidate’s issue statements online is more effective than negative TV ads saying Obama is Paris Hilton or an op-ed in the New York Times saying Sen. McCain is a shill who’ll say anything to win the White House.
For example, on Obama’s campaign Web site, you can read through his plans for all kinds of issues from faith to foreign policy, from fiscal policy to the arts and sciences. You can even retrieve details of Obama’s voting record for each issue.
On Sen. John McCain’s Web site, you also receive detailed proposals of what he would do concerning issues like national security and energy sources.
These kinds of issue pages can also be found on many third party candidates’ Web sites like Green Party nominee Cynthia McKinney and Libertarian nominee Bob Barr. Like the great CliffsNotes, it’s always there to help you out.
And lastly, keep yourself sane.
Politics is something that’s understood by few and disliked by many, myself included.
It has a way of driving you to the point of distrusting anyone and everyone.
Make sure you have something you love in life that can prevent you from pulling your hair and smashing your TV with a baseball bat.
For me, it’s acting. For others, it might be bird watching, writing or fantasy football.
Anyway you can, just make sure that your vent is there whenever the insanity and stupidity of politics collide.
And believe me folks, before November comes, it will.
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on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008 at 1:43 am and is filed under Perspectives.
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August 26th, 2008 at 7:18 am
Brian,
Your article misses the point of politics. Instead of instructing your readers to have a “vent” or “back-up-plan” for when the election becomes too hectic or confusing, it might have been better to explain that one of these men are going to be the leader of the free world. Maybe missing a couple nights of Family Guy might be worth it to see and learn about the candidates who will have control over the largest military in history, or be responsible for the largest deficit in history. You took a topic that should be monumental and made it trivial. Congratulations.