Politics as Usual

In today’s society with a plethora of ways of instant communication, politicians from both the left and right have taken full advantage of their ways to accomplish their goals. Politics has always been an ever evolving art form that plays on the minds of the country’s citizens. Facts are not an important variable in the equation of politics and that became clear during the 2008 presidential election. Since the majority of American citizens get their information from TV, newspapers, magazines and the internet, all a politician or a political party needs are talking points. These are short non-descriptive messages that are usually a generalization with little to no factual evidence involved. Politics are not hard to understand, it is the means in which to promote policy. However, for as long as our country has existed, a politic has been a way to manipulate citizens in order for them to think a certain way in terms of government.

- The 2008 presidential election was the epitome of the political game. While our country was involved with two wars, facing the greatest economic downfall since the great depression and unemployment numbers rising on a monthly basis, the Republican candidate John McCain found it necessary to talk about democratic nominee Barack Obama’s personal associations and lie about his policies. McCain ran ads suggesting that Obama surrounded himself with terrorists and racists. This is politics as usual; distract the public from legitimate concerns by terrifying them that the other candidate is a threat to national security and do so by lying.

- American citizens who get their news from television are subjected to the worst part of politics. The conservative news channel Fox News has been caught twisting the truth and blatantly lying several times. It is generally known by the public that they are a conservative news channel but instead of being open about it, they choose to use the slogan “Fair and balanced”. The Democratic party has TV stations, newspapers and magazines that promote a liberal agenda as well. The politic game is made easier on the politicians when any of their supporters do not fact check what they see on TV or read in the newspaper by researching any of the given topics.

- Talking points are the most helpful tool in the politic tool box. These are brief messages used repeatedly by a political campaign and/or political party that are simple, easy to understand and promote an idea or policy. The negative side to using talking points is that they do not always include facts or use rational ideas to support the overall message. In January of 2010, President Barack Obama spoke at the House Republican Retreat in Baltimore, MD and took questions from several Republican representatives. Many of the questions would include manipulating and suggestive talking points in order to make the president look weak and unintelligent on national policy. For example one representitive claimed that he had a health care plan that would cover twice as many citizens as Obama’s proposed plan and would not cost the government a dime. That message sounds great and when Americans hear that they cannot help but support the representative and his plan. However, it simply is not true or possible. President Obama politely explained to the audience that this type of talk might help you win elections but it has no factual baring at all. He asked the representative how it would be possible to cover millions of Americans with health insurance for free and said that he would like to see his math. This is how the game of politics is played; Say whatever will help you win elections and/or accomplish your goals by telling the public what they want to hear, whether it is true or not. A politic chess game is difficult to win if you are on the other side because sometimes the truth is not interesting enough to be explained on TV or in the newspapers.

The art of politics is usually what keeps people interested in government. How our country works in terms of policy and relations might not be too interesting to people on the surface. However, politics as usual turns our government into a dramatic reality TV show. Our means of getting the news could persuade us to think one way or the other. This will always be the case. Most politicians want to either stay in office or obtain a higher office and are willing to do what it takes in order to achieve that goal. Unfortunately, the body politic sometimes craves this back and forth between right and left. This is what fuels this fire. As negative as it might seem, it is what also encourages debate which is essential to a healthy democracy.

Two Party System

The American government has been controlled by two political parties for many years. The Democratic party and the Republican party are the two major political parties. A political party is a group of people with similar political views that want to control government and promote their ideas. Each political party believes that their ways of governing are the best way to lead the country to health and prosperity. The Democrats believe in liberalism and the Republicans believe in conservatism. In the 21st century political parties have become important factors in order to raise money for campaigns, but American citizens have become less loyal to either political party. The political party in power will usually adopt ideas and policy from both sides in order to maintain support from liberals and conservatives. In many ways both political parties use different means to get to the same end. There are many smaller political parties, but most citizens who don’t identify with either of the two major parties consider themselves independents. Almost every political campaign has made it a huge priority to gain support of not only their base but to independents as well in order to obtain the majority of the vote.

- The Democratic party was formed in 1792 by Thomas Jefferson as a way to promote the Bill of Rights and oppose the Federalist party. Six years later the “party of the common man” was changed to the Democratic-Republican party. The Republican party started in 1854 and stemmed from the debate on whether or not to expand slavery into the new Western territories.

- During the creation of our country and for many years, political party loyalty was a lot more important than it is today. This might be due to politicians being less independent in ideas and policy than they are today. Generally speaking in the past, conservatives running for office would strictly suggest only conservative views and liberals would use only liberal ideas. However, today politicians are given credit and gain more support if they are mavericks and promote whatever policies they believe will accomplish the goal, whether it is a conservative or liberal means of doing so. President Barack Obama has been promoting mostly liberal policies. However, he has issued tax cuts to a majority of Americans and has issued a spending freeze starting in 2011. Tax cuts and spending freezes are both conservative ways to help fix economic problems. Most modern politicians balance liberalism and conservatism in order to fix our nations problems.

- Independent voters are a major concern for both political parties. If a politician running for office is promoting policies that are critical to their party, then chances are they have the support of the majority of their party. Having the support from your base is usually not enough to win an election. This is why office seekers must adhere to independent voters. These are people who do not identify with either major party and will support either liberal and conservative policies depending on the issue. Over 19 million independents voted for Barack Obama in 2008.

Many Americans see the two party system as a healthy way to run the country. In order to fix current domestic and national problems, our government will need to take a liberal or conservative approach depending upon the issue. The system that runs our government today is similar to how it was in the beginning in terms of principles and values of the political parties, but we have come a long way from the the system that used to be occupied by many parties. Bi-partisanship is an issue that has gotten more popular with American citizens as time goes on. Complete party loyalty is not respected today as much as it used to be and an independent approach is now the goal of many politicians.