I know this is a couple of weeks late, but the whole Howard Dean "yelling" affair really pisses me off...
Let me start out by just confirming that I feel extremely blessed to have been born in the United States of America. And relative to many (most?) of the other countries on this planet, we have great political and legal systems.
However, with that said, I think our political and legal systems could be better.
To me, a classic example is Howard Dean's "yelling" after the Iowa caucuses. Now granted, I have not seen the entire speech, but from what I saw, it did not appear that he was angry or "out of control." Instead, it appeared to me that he was attempting to give a pep talk to a bunch of tired and disappointed campaign workers and supporters. If you look at his facial expression, he was smiling and laughing.
Why then, did the media choose to characterize it as they did? Was it just that it was something they could play up on an otherwise slow news day? Or, was it more sinister?
The reality of the American political system is that it is money driven. As a reminder, media (TV, radio, newspapers, etc.) is a business. Now, given that we are a capitalist country (and I am all for capitalism), it is not totally unreasonable that money would be a factor in all aspects of our society. But, it has to make one wonder... were there powerful economic forces which swayed how this particular incident was reported?
Given the power that money wields, and given the reality that a candidate needs LOTS of money to get elected to major offices, one has to wonder how much the winner ends up beholden to the interests that provided the money to his campaign...
Unfortunately, I think that there often fundamental conflicts between the interests of big money, and what is "right," where "right" reflects social interests, or long term consequences. I am afraid that in a society that is so focused on the next quarter's earning report, or the next election which is two, four, or at most six years away, that we often prostitute our future for our present.
Without term limits, rather than politics being a short term public service, it becomes a career. So, politicians are strongly motivated to do those things that will enhance the chances for them to keep their job. Things that are likely to be highly biased toward monetary or short term results.
Yes, I know there is no Utopia. No, I don't buy the "love it or leave it" mentality of blindly supporting the status quo. Just because something is already good, and just because nothing is perfect, does not mean that you shouldn't strive to achieve the ideal.
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Posted by David at January 31, 2004 10:26 AM