Friday, November 5, 2010

American Elections

I know in my head, that if I feel I ‘have to’ do something or ‘must do’ something I’m with ego and addicted. After all, this is what I’ve been blogging about recently. Well, I’m with ego and addicted ‘cause I feel like I ‘must’ talk about the recent elections. I’m trying to stay centered in Source and have faith that all of what seems so ‘evil’ and ‘wrong’ to me is going someplace ‘good;’ and I’m having a lot of success with that. I’m not as mad as often. But when I read the paper, watch or listen to the so-called ‘news,’ I let myself rush into anger, fear and victim-hood.

So part of my healing and moving on is writing this. One of the things that I allow to get me most is this talk, mostly from the Republicans about ‘the American people.’ This bothers me on two levels: the factual and the process. Factual first [the following numbers are approximations, not meant to be exact or precise, but rather to give a ‘feel’ for the actual numbers]. The facts are that of those eligible to vote, perhaps 200 million in a population of 330 million, only approximately 100 million registered to vote. Of those, only 40 odd percent actually voted, say 40 million people, and of those, slightly more than half, say 20 million people, in only slightly more than half of the Congressional districts, 220 to 193, contributed to the so-called Republican ‘tsunami’ and ‘landslide,’ and ‘mandate.’

Do those numbers warrant being called, the ‘American people?’ The fact seems to be that the ‘American people’ sat out this election and want nothing to do with voting or our so-called ‘democracy’ as presently constituted. We have 20 million people that voted Republican, winning slightly more than half of the Congressional districts they voted in.
Hardly the American people, a mandate, tsunami [don’t you love how that word is so pop now?] or landslide. Yet, inaccurate as those words are, that’s all we hear in the ‘lame street media.’

Which brings me to the second source of the aggravation I allow myself to feel: the media. It feels very hypocritical to find myself criticizing the media and the Supreme Court, as I’m old enough to remember that it was the Goldwater Conservatives and the western/southern branch of the Republican Party during the sixties and early seventies that specialized in this lament, tho Sarah Palin and her friends also use it when it suits them. Its kind of ironic and humorous, but I guess turn around is fair play.

Why do the ‘facts’ that I sited above, go unreported? Worse, why, not only are the facts not reported, but deliberately ignored and misrepresented? There’s always been a tendency to do this. Think about how the media led us frothing at the mouth for victory and righteous, truth, justice and the American way into the disaster of Iraq. But it seems much worse and much grosser, with much more serious consequences, now. Who decides what constitutes the so-called ‘news?’ And who decides what language to use to describe it? I blogged about this awhile back, but I guess I didn’t get it out of my system yet.

So, when I hear from the media that the ‘American people’ have spoken and the Republicans have a clear mandate, I allow myself to get very pissed. I know I’m with ego and addicted, but in spite of that, I really don’t see why we can’t get the facts more often, and less of whatever it is we get that passes for facts and news. Clearly, we do get some facts, otherwise where would I have gotten the numbers I used, but more facts and less spin would be healthier and contribute more to a world that works for everyone and everything.

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