Art Lawler Staff Writer
I think we can blame this on Jerry Springer, the political interruption scream shows and idealistic sermonizing from snake oil salesmen with shiny teeth, buffed up hair and Sunday suits.
We’re talking about the dumbing down of America here. Make no mistake, I’m part of that dumbing down, and so are you. We absorb it, like sun rays.
While we fade away intellectually in the midst of the latest survival show and short-hand texting, evil-doers are busy tricking us into voting against our own interests. Just leave us alone. We’ve got Conan and Leno to worry about.
Does Tiger really sleep with all those beautiful women? And what would we do in Tiger’s shoes?
Do we really need campaign financing reform? Shouldn’t big, bad government mind its own business?
Really now. What’s so evil about making a buck?
Does the Constitution really guarantee fairness? And shouldn’t people choose whether to have insurance or not, regardless of whether they put you in a chair and force you to drink out of a straw the rest of your life?
We’re a free country, right?
Wrong. The country is free for those who have enough money to buy elections and to smear their opponents with last-minute campaign ads which are deliberately untrue.
An opponent doesn’t just have the wrong ideas anymore. He’s a murderer, a child molester and grave robber. Check your mail in the coming months. These political operatives have the scruples of Capone and Baby Face Nelson.
Like the bullies in those old “B” movies, it’s not the well-dressed crook (the candidate) who does the murdering. That is saved for the blue-collar hit man with the scar on his cheek.
Today, the best way to “off” a political candidate is to machine-gun him with millions of dollars of lying and near lying.
These dollars come with stickum on the back.
Meanwhile, “the boss” goes to the podium and denies any responsibility and deplores such dirty tricks. Then he makes sure the “hit” ads continue to run, knowing they’ll eventually stick to the “dumbed-down” electorate.
Republicans and Democrats both do this, so don’t put your halo on just yet. In the past you could hope for a standoff of dishonesty.
May the best liar win.
That all changed on Thursday when your Supreme Court voted 5-4 that government may not ban political spending by corporations.
What is it that “Deep Throat” said in All the President’s Men? Follow the money?
Money represents face time with the president. Money represents air time over the networks and cable. If I’ve got enough of it, I can keep your message off the air, and I can “hit” you with mine until you absorb it.
It’s like a good melody. Said with enough venom enough times, like Pavlov’s dog, you’re gobbling it up and swallowing it hole, then reaching for the Kool Aid and turning it upside down over your pie hole.
Nonsense, Americans can think, you say? Yes they can. And clever political operatives will tell them exactly what they’re going to think.
It’s not about truth. It’s not about freedom; it’s about money, and corporate America just got a legal license to stuff it up the common’s man’s nose, or reasonable facsimile.
Restraints imposed way back in the Teddy Roosevelt days to keep corporations from drenching the political system with dollars, were followed up by restrictions on unions who were doing the same thing to further their own agendas.
A world without restraint and regulation is a Utopian society. Were it that we were all so honorable. We’re not, and democracy just took a shot below the belt.
A coach once told me a man’s greatest strength is almost always his greatest weakness. Capitalism is the best economic system available, but it can run off a cliff, as it almost did last year, unless there’s some form of regulation. Too much is bad. Too little is bad.
“Just right” works. The tension between liberals and conservatives is the reason our system works. It’s not the ideology which is always flawed. It’s the tension in the rope.
It’s the same with our elections. Every voice in a democracy has a right to be heard, and it should not depend on corporations (people who have differing views) to decide what’s best politically for their stockholders.
It’s just another way for a privileged few to take an average person’s money and use it to gain unfair access to the powers that be.
Corporations may spend without restraint now, and that means a lot more money to their causes and a lot less air time and face time for the majority of American citizens, many of whom are stockholders.
And this we call democracy.
Art Lawler is a staff writer for the Athens Review and its sister publication, the Cedar Creek Pilot.
