I have a boundless admiration and respect for David Horsey, the political cartoonist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer...so I'm not going to direct my ire at him in particular. Horsey's latest offering does manage to represent everything that's wrong with the media's perception of Barack Obama, though. In perpetuating the portrayal of Obama as some sort of god-like, beatific political savant, the media has proven itself to be as shallow and susceptible to Republican propaganda as the American Sheeple they supposedly serve.
Why participate in a rational and informed discussion of the issues when you can reduce Obama to a caricature and and object of ridicule? Welcome to democracy by, of, and for the lowest common denominator...and the Mainstream Media is actively promoting the dumbing down of the American Sheeple...like we can sink any lower, intellectually speaking.
Perhaps it's just that we as a nation have become so resigned to mediocrity in our leaders that we unwittingly condone those who would knock down anyone who dares to stand out and demand that we raise our standards. I suppose it's our own little bastardization of that old Japanese proverb: the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. We expect little, demand less...and in that way we guarantee that we end up with exactly the quality of leadership we deserve.
Barack Obama in not The One. He's not going to ride into Washington on a white horse and immediately restore dignity and competence to the federal government. He's not going to walk across the Reflecting Pool and hand out loaves and fishes to the starving masses. What he is going to end up having to do is spend a good part of his first term cleaning up the mess left by the incompetent nitwit who stole his way into the White House in 2000. That's if he can beat John McCain and his 24/7 propaganda and character assassination machine in November, of course.
We as a nation have lowered our standards so dramatically that we're willing to entertain naked, unvarnished propaganda and evaluate it as if it was a legitimate source of news and information. We've become the living embodiment of the theories of Josef Goebbels- to what should be (but clearly isn't) our everlasting shame. In short, most of us just don't care...and we're too (&^%$#@ stupid to pay attention.
Americans will not be able to reclaim this country from the thugs, thieves, oligarchs, and zealots until they stand up and demand that candidates talk honestly and openly about the issues that matter. No sound bites, no propaganda, no impugning of an opponent's patriotism, and no wholesale lies passed off as legitimate political discourse. To say that I'm confident that we can take this country back would be something of an overstatement. In an era when candidates propaganda operations focus on "low information" (i.e.- stupid) voters, the direction of this country is determind largely by appealing to the lowest common denominator- those who who rather react than think. It's a helluva way to run a railroad- much less govern a country- but the vast majority of the American Sheeple just can't be bothered to remove their anterior from the posterior. This is how we end up with an empty suit like John McCain getting the support of half the electorate. It's also how a legitimate and eminently qualified candidate- Barack Obama- a man with vision, character, and an active, nimble intellect can be portrayed as a man with a Messiah complex.
When mediocrity rules, those with talent and vision will be marginalized, ridiculed, and laughed out of the room...and we will all be poorer for our arrogance, ignorance, and inattention. This is how we get exactly the quality of leadership we deserve. The truly disturbing thing is that our standards are so appallingly low.
