A Simple Question, Perhaps

[The Captain]

Why do we, as citizens of this world, the people of America mostly, settle for mediocre leaders? Have we given up so completely on truthful, idealistic, compassionate, progressive thought that we no longer even use it as a bar to set against those who would govern us? Neither candidate has demonstrated much of this, Kerry more so than Bush, but not enough of note and it just is not an issue. It seems that the bare minimum has become enough to satisfy us. Is there a reason for this?

I would hope that the person who we elect president are NOT just ordinary men or women, but rather are somehow extraordinary: someone who can fix things and see things in a way that we might not be capable of ourselves. Yet, we haven't seen any sort of vision or power like this since the 40's, 50's, and early 60's when people like Churchill, FDR, Ghandi, JFK, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Bob Dylan, Ali, moved us and shook the foundation. Where has it all gone? Can it ever be found again?

Take care all.

[Dr Unne]

I think there are too many people in this country. We can't get to know our leaders. The only means through which most people can learn about people is the media, because most people aren't going to go look up Senator McRepublican's voting records for Bill SB0395x3 regarding funding allocations for chicken farmers, among the other thousands of things Senators and Representatives and governors etc. do in their lifetimes. The next best thing is that we pick a Party, and then we trust that The Party will pick the best candidate for us. I said in other threads, we don't vote for a candidate, we vote for a Party. I'm sure there are some really enlightened leaders (by whatever definition of enlightened you like) out there, but I'll never hear of them, not without a nation-wide force of supporters and money to get the message out. Someone could completely blow me away, and I could tell every I know, and they could do the same, and so forth until this person won over my entire city, or even entire state. And it wouldn't mean a thing, because that's still less than 1/50 of the nation.

[The Captain]

Very nicely said Unne. Do you see any way for this to change? Perhaps, rely less on the media, if there's some way to do that?

A key for me is to once and for all, do away with all of this campaign spending and PLEASE for the love of all that is good in this world, close all these loopholes that 527's (Which are attack ads) always seem to find, so that real messages can be heard from more than just two parties.

I envision some sort of more accessible candidate who could really answer you face to face and not constantly just be playing to the pollsters and Party core, but would really say things of value. Of course, in our current atmosphere, it would be next to impossible since we are bomared into believing death is at our door and I doubt any leader would want to make themselves more open to threats, whether they're real threats or just spin.

Take care all.

[Azure Chrysanthemum]

If we really wanted change the only real way is open revolution, and even then, that'd probably just evolve into what we have now and the cycle would repeat.

[fire_of_avalon]

I've said it before, and I'll repeat it here again, the media only shows what the public wants to see. Should the public desire something else, we'll all get something else.

I don't think the majority of the public is nearly educated enough about the way things go on to ask for the things you're asking for. The majority of the public does NOT think "what will this candidate do for the nation? and the world?", they think "what will this candidate do for me?". Because the majority of the public is completely self involved and has no time to think of their fellow countrymen, let alone the rest of the world.

Don't believe me? Find someone and ask them why they're voting Bush. The most likely answer is "Because I want to know that the country is safe." You really think they mean all 290 some odd million people living within these borders? I think not.

The same rule can be applied to any candidate, in my opinion.

[Dr Unne]

The media does show what people want, yes. I don't blame the media for anything. People want to hear everything there is to hear about politics in two minutes and be done with it. If that. It's just not possible to make a good decision based upon a political commercial, or a "debate" of the sort that we broadcast on TV. Politicians know that people have short attention spans and knee-jerk voting reactions, so they blindly spew one-sentence catchy phrases at the public, in a sort of shot-gun effect, hoping to do as much widespread damage as possible; if they miss a few people, or a few cities, or a few states, who cares?

I don't think there's any way anything is going to change, short of something which forces us to change. Another world war maybe. When 9/11 happened things changed, for like 3 months, remember? Remember Congress sitting on the steps of a building in Washington and singing a song together? Look where we are now. Getting our buildings exploded by terrorists isn't enough to change anything; if it takes more than that to change things, I don't think change is something I'd look forward to.