Substance Over Emotion
To those who know me, it's no secret that I love politics and I love to analyze government. Time and time again I've said that if it weren't for my religious convictions, I'd be an elected official. Sure, you might label it as just being talk, but trust me, I've thought it through. In fact, in my years of service in the Student Senate of George Mason University, and my years in the Student Bar Association at the American University Washington College of Law, I treated those positions as I would any elected position within a "real" government.
To me, true elected officials must see themselves as public servants. They must recognize that the job they were elected to requires them to put aside partisan games and their own future aspirations and to, rather, focus all of their efforts onto that which will serve those who gave them their jobs. Furthermore, when they seek those jobs, these public servants must be upfront with the voters about what they will bring to the table if hired/elected.
And that brings me to this current presidential election in the United States of America. Note that I didn't capitalize "presidential election." First and foremost, none of the candidates have done anything to merit capitalization. Secondly, the presidential election is just another job application process ... except this one has a few hundred million evaluators. So, until I start capitalizing "job application" I ain't gonna capitalize "presidential election." Just my 2 pennies.
Okay, back to topic. This is the first time in a long while that both parties have highly contested primaries, and it makes for great excitement. It's also very interesting for me to look at the battles between the top two candidates on each side. In the republican race, it's very much a war between issues. One candidate is banking on the economy while another is banking on national security. In the meanwhile, each is trying to establish himself as competent with regard to the other's top issue. When they stop the mudslinging, the elephant boys have a decent debate going on, and I'm very curious which "issue" will win out this year. Although, my personal opinion has the better candidate backing the secondary issue...we'll see how that works.
In the much-hyped democratic nominating process, the stage has shifted quite a bit over just a couple of months. But anyone that didn't see this coming also probably didn't expect the dot.com bubble to burst. On the democratic side, issues aren't garnering the spotlight, as the top two candidates seemingly have similar stances, though one has given more insight into policies and ideas than the other. Rather, the vote is coming down to substance versus emotion. One candidate has an amazing voice which is used to rally supporters and wanna-be believers. The other candidate has put forth comprehensive plans on what can and should be done. In my experience, emotion without substance is all hype and substance without emotion is boring but effective. Here's to hoping that Americans focus on the substance in order to obtain the hope they so desperately seek.
I love politics :-)
To me, true elected officials must see themselves as public servants. They must recognize that the job they were elected to requires them to put aside partisan games and their own future aspirations and to, rather, focus all of their efforts onto that which will serve those who gave them their jobs. Furthermore, when they seek those jobs, these public servants must be upfront with the voters about what they will bring to the table if hired/elected.
And that brings me to this current presidential election in the United States of America. Note that I didn't capitalize "presidential election." First and foremost, none of the candidates have done anything to merit capitalization. Secondly, the presidential election is just another job application process ... except this one has a few hundred million evaluators. So, until I start capitalizing "job application" I ain't gonna capitalize "presidential election." Just my 2 pennies.
Okay, back to topic. This is the first time in a long while that both parties have highly contested primaries, and it makes for great excitement. It's also very interesting for me to look at the battles between the top two candidates on each side. In the republican race, it's very much a war between issues. One candidate is banking on the economy while another is banking on national security. In the meanwhile, each is trying to establish himself as competent with regard to the other's top issue. When they stop the mudslinging, the elephant boys have a decent debate going on, and I'm very curious which "issue" will win out this year. Although, my personal opinion has the better candidate backing the secondary issue...we'll see how that works.
In the much-hyped democratic nominating process, the stage has shifted quite a bit over just a couple of months. But anyone that didn't see this coming also probably didn't expect the dot.com bubble to burst. On the democratic side, issues aren't garnering the spotlight, as the top two candidates seemingly have similar stances, though one has given more insight into policies and ideas than the other. Rather, the vote is coming down to substance versus emotion. One candidate has an amazing voice which is used to rally supporters and wanna-be believers. The other candidate has put forth comprehensive plans on what can and should be done. In my experience, emotion without substance is all hype and substance without emotion is boring but effective. Here's to hoping that Americans focus on the substance in order to obtain the hope they so desperately seek.
I love politics :-)
Labels: 2008 Election, Democrats, Government, Politics, Republicans
posted by Sum at
10:15 PM
1 Comments:
Well, that's a lot of talk. You may wanna consider loving 'political science' instead of 'politics'. As the French say, La Politique is different from Sciences Po.
But point is Sum, if u grasp politics the way u do, then u'd understand one core truth. Emotion wins over substance all the time. If you want to get 'elected', all talk and neither emotion nor votes is blah. Same like all the issue abt Public Servants is well said, but so far removed from the reality of what matters in a 'successful' career in politics that u'd neither gain a constituency nor political allies.
Like I said..."elected" politics is abt the votes. If u're thinking of substance, think abt anything else b/c that's only relevant in politics when talking the talk.
I share your thought on politics and the religious conviction. But I've come to terms with that after realizing that a 'politician' is different from a ' career in politics'. Anything else is wistful thinking.
Moreover, any credible political observer wld tell u tht what the say abt the issues is different from what wld happen. The reasons range from the expediencies of campaigning to the political process which inevitably involves compromising with other p[ower brookers until one stand on the issue morphes into another.
By
Mayer, at Friday, February 1, 2008 10:41:00 PM EST
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