Sunday, April 13, 2008

America's Choice

So you've made up your mind about which of the three Democrats you want to support this fall. Yes, you have. You may just not realize it yet.

Answer for yourself this question: Which candidate is the media being unfair to? Similarly, which candidates are getting a free pass from the press, their myriad difficulties glossed over or sent to the back pages?

The answer to the first question is your likely choice. The answers to the second question are those you've already written off.

Mind you, the media DOES spend a lot of time and effort going over in agonizing details the little stuff (bowling scores, foul language, sniper fire) at the expense of issues (The War, the Economy, the Future). It's human nature - the big issues are too big to consider, so we devolve into flag pins and first wives, trying to read in these portents how things will work out. We are already parsing out what parts of the past we want to think about (veteran, law professor, diplomat) and what parts we don't (S&L Scandal, former preacher, Monica). And in doing so we're setting out own boundaries, which, once set, will follow through the election without further reflection.

You may say that you don't agree with Candidate A on the War or Candidate B on the Economy or that Candidate C's position on biofuels gives you pause. But the truth of the matter is that in our reptile-portion of the brain, the flight-or-fight area, we've already made the decision, and all we're doing is looking for the justification (provided by a 24/7 media that has it own agenda) to confirm it.

That's just something else to think about.

More later,