Time for the Real Campaign
Let the games begin! Make that, “Let the 2012 presidential campaign begin.”
While the national nominating conventions are months away, we now know that the fall campaign will match President Obama against challenger Mitt Romney. Politics is a great spectator sport, and Americans will certainly be watching.
Perhaps more than at any time since political parties ran their own newspapers for propaganda purposes in the days of Andrew Jackson, more Americans will get their news filtered through an ideological lens. What kind of impression would you have of President Obama if your main source was Fox News? What would you think of Mitt Romney’s ideas if you relied primarily on the editorial page of the New York Times? Interestingly, more choice for media outlets means we can more easily choose to shield ourselves from opinions that are different than our own. But I digress.
American presidential campaigns are usually filled with truths, half-truths, distortions and downright lies. We Americans are captivated by such behavior (see Bobby Petrino’s motorcycle machination as Exhibit A).
Distortions about Obama are many, starting with the false claim that he is a Muslim. Likewise, the Obama camp has already labeled their opponent as Mitt “Say Anything” Romney. Even the wives of the candidates are subject to attack.
Such mudslinging is not new to American politics. In 1828 Andrew Jackson blamed his political enemies for his wife’s untimely death between his election and his inauguration. They had maligned her character by twisting the truth.
John Kennedy scared Americans into supporting him in 1960 by exploiting a missile gap with the Soviets. In truth, the only missile gap was that the U.S. had a much larger ballistic missile arsenal than the Russians.
William Henry Harrison (remember Tippecanoe and Tyler too?) provides another good example in the election of 1840. Harrison’s campaign adopted a log cabin and hard cider as campaign symbols to connect with the common man. Never mind that Harrison was actually born to the manor as landed gentry in Virginia. His father was a signer of the Declaration of Independence – hardly a sign of humble origins.
What will become the symbols of the 2012 campaign? It’s too early to tell, but we already know that political pundits will never look at the Etch-a-Sketch toy in quite the same way.
While political distortions are entertaining, they do make political progress on real problems more difficult. Republicans are deceiving the American public when they say we can cut taxes as the retiring Baby Boom generation doubles the number of people on Social Security and Medicare. Note to doubters: do the math.
Democrats will mislead the American public this year by claiming that raising taxes on those who make more than $250,000 a year will solve our debt crisis and put our nation’s fiscal house in order. Note to doubters: do the math.
In the recent past, presidential campaigns have taught us new words and phrases such as hanging chads, swift-boating, and “It’s the economy stupid.”
What does 2012 have in store for us? What catch-phrases will enter the political lexicon? Fasten your seatbelts; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Brother Rogers is a guest columnist for the Starkville Daily News and works at the Stennis Center for Public Service.
While the national nominating conventions are months away, we now know that the fall campaign will match President Obama against challenger Mitt Romney. Politics is a great spectator sport, and Americans will certainly be watching.
Perhaps more than at any time since political parties ran their own newspapers for propaganda purposes in the days of Andrew Jackson, more Americans will get their news filtered through an ideological lens. What kind of impression would you have of President Obama if your main source was Fox News? What would you think of Mitt Romney’s ideas if you relied primarily on the editorial page of the New York Times? Interestingly, more choice for media outlets means we can more easily choose to shield ourselves from opinions that are different than our own. But I digress.
American presidential campaigns are usually filled with truths, half-truths, distortions and downright lies. We Americans are captivated by such behavior (see Bobby Petrino’s motorcycle machination as Exhibit A).
Distortions about Obama are many, starting with the false claim that he is a Muslim. Likewise, the Obama camp has already labeled their opponent as Mitt “Say Anything” Romney. Even the wives of the candidates are subject to attack.
Such mudslinging is not new to American politics. In 1828 Andrew Jackson blamed his political enemies for his wife’s untimely death between his election and his inauguration. They had maligned her character by twisting the truth.
John Kennedy scared Americans into supporting him in 1960 by exploiting a missile gap with the Soviets. In truth, the only missile gap was that the U.S. had a much larger ballistic missile arsenal than the Russians.
William Henry Harrison (remember Tippecanoe and Tyler too?) provides another good example in the election of 1840. Harrison’s campaign adopted a log cabin and hard cider as campaign symbols to connect with the common man. Never mind that Harrison was actually born to the manor as landed gentry in Virginia. His father was a signer of the Declaration of Independence – hardly a sign of humble origins.
What will become the symbols of the 2012 campaign? It’s too early to tell, but we already know that political pundits will never look at the Etch-a-Sketch toy in quite the same way.
While political distortions are entertaining, they do make political progress on real problems more difficult. Republicans are deceiving the American public when they say we can cut taxes as the retiring Baby Boom generation doubles the number of people on Social Security and Medicare. Note to doubters: do the math.
Democrats will mislead the American public this year by claiming that raising taxes on those who make more than $250,000 a year will solve our debt crisis and put our nation’s fiscal house in order. Note to doubters: do the math.
In the recent past, presidential campaigns have taught us new words and phrases such as hanging chads, swift-boating, and “It’s the economy stupid.”
What does 2012 have in store for us? What catch-phrases will enter the political lexicon? Fasten your seatbelts; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Brother Rogers is a guest columnist for the Starkville Daily News and works at the Stennis Center for Public Service.
