My first political editorial! Curing the extreme Right wing cancer

[CarpeDiebold]

Hi Du'ers, this is the first time I actually wrote an editorial to understand and offer a logical(i hope!) critique of a political issue. Please remember this is my first when you judge it :p I respect the DU community a lot, so any critique you can offer of my ideas, style, whatever would be incredibly useful!

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While the media screams about a non-existent war on Christmas and a secret gay agenda, Congress has passed legislation favoring insurance companies over patients, credit card companies over burdened consumers, and drilling companies over environmental protection. The political landscape in America is being upturned, leaving progressives everywhere stunned at the brilliant and malignant route that Conservatives are taking in amplifying the voice of a few zealots seem more important than the voice of the majority in this country. Right wing extremists have made Roe v. Wade, gay marriage, and an imaginary war on Christmas more important than genocide in the Sudan, a booming AIDS crisis, and the suffering of the poor in America and around the world.

The Democratic party is scrambling on its feet, attempting to learn from Karl Rove’s playbook on the importance of perception amongst voters and on creating imaginary divides between Americans in order to distract them from paying attention to important matters being rammed through Congress. A lot of this can be blamed on a failed media more concerned with the bottom line and avoiding controversy at the expense of doing it's real job of protecting the people. But the more important question here is why aren’t American’s being more vocal about being fed superfluous news bites while important questions go unasked.

Trying to reclaim a balanced and responsible media is one solution. Grassroots level movements to expose voters to important issues are another. But each has its flaws.

One solution is to reclaim the media and force it to do its job and protect American's against a power hungry Republican party. But corporate control and shareholder interests are so strong that saving the media will demand time, money and qualified people. There are still those who fight to reverse the trends seen in mainstream media, but I think this will take a long time to accomplish and there are areas that are ignored at the expense of chasing this option.

Educating voters about important issues, asking them to hold their voted officials accountable are all effective and noble efforts. It requires heavy grassroots efforts, door-to-door campaigning, and a concerted PR campaigns. There is a short time window in which to change one's mind, and deeply held convictions about the important of Christianity or gay marriage might trump more pressing questions. The groups working on this arena of public education are doing a great job and must keep going strong, but I don't see this as the ideal solution to the problem of basic apathy and deeply ingrained prejudices.

The final solution that is thrown around a lot among progressives is a change in the education system. With the conservative stronghold on media and the fear tactics used to sway voters, progressives have public education as one last and often ignored arena for political change. No conservative or liberal can argue against a better-educated populace, and I’m not suggesting using the public education system to implant liberal ideas in young people’s minds. I'm more interested in teaching children to analyze news critically, and to understand their powerful role in democracy. With strong parental involvement in PTA and local education boards, liberals can make definite change in exposing children to critical thinking. Teaching them from a young age to question mainstream media and ideas, pointing out the inconsistencies in political figures, and simply showing them how wide and important the political arena can be will make a huge impact on the erosion of democracy in this country.

I believe that the Conservative values are almost entirely inconsistent with logical thinking and rigorous analysis. What I'm proposing is to give kids the tools they need to analyze the news, to understand the more important issues at hand, and the emerging role of the internet in the political process. With these tools in hand, I believe that kids will be able to distinguish an inept politician from a genuine one, an important news story from a fluffy one.

This does not involve immense time commitment and concerted PR campaigns. It simply involves intelligent parents using their time and energy to demand that schools teach a broader system of thought, one that shows children the power of being politically involved, and how to distinguish lies and propaganda from important issues. The right wing has attempted to use this same pipeline to funnel religious thought, but liberals can make better use of this untapped resource to demand kids get a broader, more critical education. And that kind of education is inconsistent with conservative values and their current techniques of propaganda.

The ultimate solution to reclaiming America is probably too complex to pursue by one path alone. It will likely involve a combination of the above methods, but education remains an untapped resource where we can eliminate political apathy, hatred, and illogical inconsistencies at the root.


Cheers!!