On my trek through the cluttered reaches of my mind, I realized our democracy fails us. Not to be unpatriotic for the sake of being unpatriotic, of course. Take a listen, if you please.
A president, like all world leaders, must be respectable, be smart and have the gonads to make tough decisions. *cough* unlike our current one *cough* But besides me inaudibly coughing, it seems to me that "the media," as everyone is calling them nowadays, has far too much weight in each election. Honestly, we're hardly a democracy at this point; our elections have turned into mudslinging contests between the 'us vs. them'-esque talk show hosts, (Oh Colbert, you dog you) and "news programs." There's a lot of crap that gets said about nominees, more so than what should be said. In interviews with Sarah Palin, for example, (not a fan, just roll with me) she was asked questions that either could not be answered well or were just ad hominem enough to produce a shocked & thus terrible answer. And then there's the incredibly harsh bullhonkey George W. Bush got, who many made out to be an idiot. *cough* *cough* degrees at both Harvard and Yale *cough* Yeah, because shooting down someone saying they're an idiot (cleary not just because 'he's a republican and I'm a democrat") after they were rightly elected under our democratic rules is completely rational and fair, oh wait, no it's not and those who think otherwise can go die in a chemical fire.
To bring in something besides my disagreeable thoughts on the subject, Plato the Great was scared of the "perfect society" as we, being patriotic, try to think of America as being; free elections don't encourage smart choices; from them "voting for who my parents voted for is smart," "I am this, he is that" and "he who has the most charm should win" mentalities are born. Plato knew democracies tend to establish popularity contests rather than an intelligent society.
Republican Presidents, ever since Ford, have been made out to be idiots by hilarious talk show hosts (Oh Stewart, you prude) and "unbiased" "news" shows. *cough* NBC *cough* While Democrats are, more recently, being weighed down by Fox News and the doomsaying of people such as Glenn Beck. "Surely this great country is going down the pooper" is definitely a little pessimistic, but at least it comes from caring about this country which is more than I can say about people who ignorantly rant that "Ooo, that Bush is such a retard" and "Man, Obama needs to suck less." To those people in the audience, you should get shot in a drive-by. Not only that, but the Bible clearly states "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God."
Just so we're clear, your opinions are not made invalid because they don't correspond with mine; they're invalid because, often enough, you're just spouting something you heard from a biased source that was trying to reach a target consumer in order to stay in business. And yeah, Fox is biased towards republicans. But are the other sources of "information" valid? Are there really any unbiased sources of information? Yes. It comes from deep thoughts and keen intelligence, not the manipulation of the general public to our will.
And with that, I must say, farewell.
