Friday, October 10, 2008

The same old politics


Every four years the presidential Superbowl is played between the same two teams, who offer the same old rhetoric, and who, without competition, are assured of their spot in the big game. All they have to do is pick their players and show up. The media takes care of the rest.

Try finding coverage of an independent or third-party candidate from a mainstream news source. Before you come across any alternative perspectives, you will most likely weed through many generic articles of predictable interviews and storylines. Flip to the "Other Views" section in this paper, for example, and if it's Wednesday you will see Pat Murphy foaming at the mouth over a clichéd liberal cause while David Reinhard blindly defends all GOP perspectives without regard for facts or common sense. With these two writers, as with most political journalists, it seems, the breadth and scope of topics is limited to red and blue talking points.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were more perspectives covered by the media so that we could expand the dialogue of issues facing this country? There are some important differences between the two major parties, but there are many more similarities. Most significantly, as Ralph Nader and others have been preaching for years, they are both controlled by corporate America, whose agenda often undermines the interest of the American people. Consequently, very important issues, ones that Democrats and Republicans don't want to talk about, are not being discussed. One great example is how big, corporate farming has hijacked regulatory policy at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This corrupt and dangerous situation has far-reaching effects over the food we eat, and our health in general, and it therefore impacts all Americans. Yet, don't hold your breath waiting for this topic, or similar ones regarding corporate influence over national policy, to appear in the upcoming debates.

If this election is about real change, as it is in every other election, then let's change the same broken-record conversations we have been having for too long. Let's include points of view in national and local discussions that go beyond the Democrat and Republican platforms, and that have largely been ignored by mainstream media.

Chris Gripkey

Hailey




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