Segmentation Fault: Core dumped..;-)

Will the next revolution be televised? Not if Senator Kerry wins.

Posted : September 4, 2004 at 12:59 am [America/Los_Angeles]

Thanks to the insane dominance of the two Ms - Money and Media - in American politics and the vitriolic attacks made during the recently concluded Republican National Convention, this Presidential election to many in this country looks like a fight between an incumbent President and a wishy-washy most liberal bum!

Why? Well, here’s how I would explain it:

There are two candidates wanting to become the leader of the Free World.

One of the candidate is the incumbent, has a charming Texan personality, is not very articulate, does not have much of an intellectual curiosity, comes out as arrogant more times than he himself would like and has a record with two catastrophic failures (Iraq and Economy), one glorious success (War against Al Qaeda after 9/11) and many with controversial results (passing of the Patriot Act, No Child Left Behind, Prescription Drugs Plan, etc.).

The other is a bonafide intellectual, somewhat of an introvert with an innocuous and boring countenance. However, he has an impeccable resume. A war veteran indeed a war-hero, an anti-war activist and 19 years of experience as a junior Senator from Massachusetts. While he certainly has had his fair share of noticeable achievements (his work with Sen. McCain around POWs in Vietnam, his investigative work around allegations of illegal gun-running and narcotics trafficking by the CIA and State Department - Iran Contra and BCCI) in all these years of public service as a Senator, he also has quite a few controversial actions (his Senate testimony in 1971, his umpteen votes in the Senate which can easily be misconstrued as anti-Intelligence or an anti-Military although the reality of it is not that simple) against his name.

Seems like an interesting little duel to me so far. Both candidates have a thing or two that stands out. Both also have a few failures to duck against. However, the challenger indeed has one advantage over the incumbent, all things being equal - He is smarter and the catastrophic errors of the incumbent are fresh in people’s minds.

If the 2 Ms (Money and Media) would stay out of these elections or would be used “equally” and “fairly”, the election would be fairly close at this stage with the challenger probably having an edge. However, we know there is no way that the 2 Ms can stay out of US “elections” and there is no way that they can be used “fairly” and “equally”. The result:

• If the incumbent (President Bush) is blessed or backed by a shrewd political brain who really knows how to (mis)use the 2 Ms to “focus on the incumbent’s success and hammer away at the weaknesses of the challenger”, the whole election can become lop-sided in a hurry in the favor of the incumbent. After all, all you need to do is to inundate the airwaves by continuously repeating “Strong Leader with moral clarity“, the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” views or charges like “flip-flopper“.

• Similarly, if the challenger (Senator John Kerry) is blessed or backed by a shrewd political brain who really knows how to (mis)use the 2 Ms to “focus on the challenger’s strengths and slam the incumbent’s record of failures without even ackowledging the existence of the incumbent’s glorious success”, the whole election would also get lop-sided in a hurry, this time in the favor of the challenger. After all, all you need to do is to inundate the airwaves and continuously repeat slogans like “Net loss of jobs for the first time since Herbert Hoover” or “1000 died in mis-managed Iraq war” or “War Hero“.

Unfortunately for Senator Kerry, President Bush is the one who has raised more than 200 million dollars of cash to spend during this year’s Election campaign (the first M, Money), has the airwaves of FOXNews, CNN and popular talk shows of Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and others of their ilk (the second M, Media) and the political mind of Karl Rove!

Do I think Senator Kerry does not stand a chance? Well, I would have emphatically said “Yup”. However, there is only one thing that is standing between George Bush (with his 2 Ms and Karl Rove) and a certain victory. And that is the power and reach of Internet “blogs” like Kerry & Edwards blog, Eschaton, Daily Kos and many many more like these.

It will be interesting to see if the collective brains and volunteer work of thousands of “common citizens” brought together via these Internet blogs can outwit and outsmart the advantage of President Bush - the 2 Ms and Karl Rove!

So, with that said, will the next revolution be televised? Not if Senator Kerry wins!

- Anand

Category: United (or not) State of American Politics 2004