A Polarised Electorate

I’m just a humble observer from Australia, but I have noticed that interest in this election is higher than it has ever been. The electorate has polarised more than any it has at any other election also.

I was too young for the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, and to a lesser extent the first Nixon Administration.

I really started to get some interest when Nixon ran for re-election in 1972, and in the main, that came after, as the Watergate burglary developed.

I watched as Jimmy Carter came from nowhere to climb up the Democrat pecking order from last position to finally get the nomination. He won the Presidency not because he won it, but the fact that Gerald Ford suffered from the very problem of being associated with Nixon. We saw the fumblings of that Carter Administration with Zbigniew Brzezinski as NSA, as the US went from one foreign policy problem to the next, highlighted especially by the Iran fiasco. There were internal problems at home as well during his tenure, and even this current financial meltdown had some roots with this Carter Administration.

America was ripe for Ronald Reagan, and as much as the rest of the World thought that only the US could elect a second string actor as president, his legacy shows the strength of that Administration, and just how well the perception of strength was when he won that 1984 second term by the biggest landslide in history winning all but one State and 525 of the 538 Electoral College votes available at that time.

The strength of that win carried over into the first Bush Administration, but the lethargy and apathy of 12 years saw Bill Clinton win in 1992. That Administration had the freshness of his youth, and his popularity saw him re-elected. Al Gore also was one to suffer from a 2 term Administration, and although close, he missed out.

This Bush Administration again sees a Republican nominee suffering from 2 term apathy, and the clarion cry of all opposition candidates after a 2 term Government is always change, and the fact that the Democrats can ‘pin’ anything on that outgoing Administration.

One thing though that is different with this election, when compared to all those earlier ones is that this one sees an even greater polarisation.

Each time a President was elected, the whole electorate seemed refreshed and ready to get on with it. Nobody preached doom and gloom like they are this time. Supporters from both sides are actually fearful if the ‘other guy’ gets in.

This is something that has never been more apparent than it has this time.

The big difference this time that has not been in place at any other election is the rise of the bloggers, and I know I’ve said it before, but it is just so obvious. This actually is where all the action has been for this election. Nobody had a voice like this before, and this is where the electorate has polarised.

Previously, voters in the US have been relatively ambivalent come election time.

Coming from Australia, where voting is compulsory, it always made me smile a little when I read of such low voter turnouts at elections in the US. This time, turnout is expected to be higher, and I actually suspect the numbers will be quite large indeed. However, the numbers will be even further enhanced with reports of voter elrollment fraud coming in on a daily basis. That being the case, if there are some that are being detected, I’m leaning in favour that there are many many more that will go undetected.

I’m also a little suspicious that if there is online voting, then that can be hacked, no matter how good the security may be, and this could also tend to skew the figures of number of voters.

One thing that has been most effectively highlighted with this election is the rise of the blogs, and just what effect they are having. This is where the polarisation of the electorate is most evident. Even taking into account that it has been around for a while, it is still in the formative stage, but you can see the whole spectrum of opinion now from those blogs. Both sides will post the views that support the party they support, and also they will post views detrimental to the other side. The point about all that is not the opinions of those who write what they do, but that people are actually seeing it, and forming opinions from that. That alone is what is engendering increased interest. Those opinions are party political by nature, but also highlight actual truth, even among some chaff. The people themselves are actually being made aware of things they would never have known about previously. Even while still only in its infancy, this section of the media, and it has now become a section of the media, will be even more sophisticated come the next, and subsequent elections. It will be a powerful tool.

The one thing it has done is to cause people to ask questions. Not about the people they may or may not support, but how, if the evidence is so strong, why these things have not been reported by the physical media. From this point forward, those physical media outlets will not have it all their own way. They actually will have to start reporting the actual news, the actual truth, and not a slanted opinioinated sound byte view. The partisanship will have to be rooted out of the mainstream media. People will start to come through who will see to this. They will start to hold the media to account for how they actually deal with perceived political bias.

That is why this election will be so important. People actually are waking up. Lethargy has turned into the perception of polarisation. What you will see for this election is still that the vast majority of people will believe the current media representation of they way they perceive things to be, but from this point forward now, the media, and for that point also, the politicians themselves, will have to be very careful of what they say, how they vote in the house, what they support, who they back, who backs them, what they do, because from now, the bloggers will pick up on it and the word will go out. There will be a perpetual record of all they do. Gone are the days of something they said or did being buried. These people represent us, the people and we want to know about what they do because it’s our future.

Whoever realises this first will have gotten in on the ground floor.

After the election, the voters from one side will say that their guy lost, but when it all dies down, there will only be one loser, and that will be the media themselves. Their days of partisanship will be over. The politicians will have been elected for four years, but if the media don’t start treating matters fairly, we don’t have to wait four more years to throw them out. Public opinion will see that from now, they will have to start treating their reporting in a fair manner.

That is why this election is important.

Tagged: Media Accountability, Political Comment, Voter Interest, Voter Involvement

Posted in: 2008 Elections, America (USA), Blogs, Malicious Media, Media, MSM (Main Stream Media) Leftist-Socialist, Muddled Media, News Media, Politically Correct, Politics, Propaganda, Public Opinion