The campaign for the 2012 Presidential election is upon us in all its glory.
We are already being inundated with ads and sound bytes, pundits and opinions.
You can't watch the news without someone making a political statement or jabbing at a political party.
This is the American election cycle at its best, and its worst.
The great thing about this process is that we get to hear about the candidate's message and their intentions.
We get to hear statistics about voting histories, work histories, choices they have made and problems they have resolved.
We get to find out what kind of family values they promote and we even get to hear from other people about how they feel about the candidate too.
We also get to hear about their failures.
We get blasted with numbers and percentages.
We get slapped with buzzwords and hot topics.
We get alternating messages of hope and promise with a big dose of fear and uncertainty.
Watching a couple of hours of television can make someone feel like they have been on a roller coaster of political awareness.
Welcome to political Spin.
"Spin" is the term used when something factual is reported from a different perspective in order to portray a different message.
As an example let's look at the Cold War.
During the Cold War the American and Russian governments both built up huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons and aimed them at each other.
The Americans, who just happened to be the only people to ever drop a nuclear device on another nation, claimed that their nuclear buildup was to ensure the safety of their people through the use of the nuclear deterrent.
At the same time, the Americans reported constantly and consistently that the Russian buildup was intended for offensive purposes.
So, while we built up a huge stockpile for safety, they built up a huge stockpile to prepare to attacks us.
Typical spin reporting.
Now, anyone with just a bit of common sense knows that both sides of the political coin utilize spin when they put out their messages and their advertisements.
Speeches are full of statistics that cannot be disproven without unraveling sixteen layers of spin and by then you've lost the listener and they have probably already made up their mind.
The political masterminds use the same word in different ways or different words to mean the same thing in an effort to confuse the listener so they can't check up on the facts later.
Let's take the current political battle and look at a simple example of spin.
Here's the setup: Democrats are claiming that President Obama's policies have created 4.
5 million new jobs over the past 29 months.
In rebuttal the Republicans are saying "That doesn't count government jobs", which is true.
In response to the response the Democrats say "We don't include the government jobs because the Republicans want smaller government and the public sector is what grows the economy".
So then the Republican response to the response of the first response is "In reality the nation is still out 316,000 jobs since the start of Obama's term.
" You see where this is going? Statistic after statistic after statistic used to confuse the listener and make it nearly impossible to determine who is right, who is wrong and who to vote for in the end.
The actual answer is both sides are right, all of those facts check out and have been validated by PolitiFact.
com.
So where do these confusing ads and statistics come from? They come from organizations that have been formed for the sole purpose of getting people like you and me to vote for a particular candidate.
These organizations aren't charities and they aren't civic organizations.
These aren't church groups and PTO members.
These are advertising firms with legal teams and number crunchers and their only intention is to come up with a way to make the other guy look bad, without breaking the law.
Where do they get their funding? Surely the candidates are not paying these people to blur the lines between truth and lie! Surely our next American President would not stoop to the level of confusing the electorate with smoke and mirrors in order to get them to vote outside of their normal beliefs! You're right, the next President is NOT paying these organizations to lie and deceive the American people...
American corporations and our wealthiest citizens are doing it.
According to The Center for Public Integrity ( www.
publicintegrity.
org ) both sides of the political battle are getting hit with ads on television, radio and in print media at record pace.
So called "Super PACs" are rolling in money and although they cannot directly contribute to a campaign, you would have to be as thick as they apparently think you are to believe they don't work together at all.
So why is this important and why does this need to change? The basic principle of a democratically elected government is that its leaders are elected by the people.
It has always simply been assumed that the people formed an "informed electorate".
Unfortunately, with the current dog and pony show of these campaigns there is no way the average citizen can be considered part of an informed electorate.
Both sides of this political battle are doing their best, officially and unofficially, to ensure that your vote is bought and paid for through misinformation, lies, threats, fear and uncertainty.
Very little is being said about how we move forward as a nation and how we tackle the hard problems we face.
I didn't see any charts or graphs showing where we are and where we want to be.
I didn't hear anyone in either convention say "Our plan is to cut the deficit and THIS is how we'll do it!", I simply heard "I am going to cut the deficit, and the other guy won't".
Heck, I could get on a stage and say that and I would really hope that you wouldn't believe me.
We are going into this election deciding on the future of our country based on 30 second snippets of incomplete data that has been massaged and manipulated to the point of being worthless.
We are going to cast our ballots for someone based on what major corporations and the wealthiest of Americans think we should believe about our daily struggles.
Do the wealthiest of Americans know how you feel when you are looking at your bank balance and deciding whether to fill your gas tank or hold onto some cash for groceries and emergencies? Do the Koch brothers know what it's like to endure pain day after day because you don't have health insurance to see a doctor? Do those rich Americans know how it feels to send your kids to school in worn out hand me downs because you've been laid off by a company that just donated millions of dollars to a SuperPac but they can't seem to afford your middle class wages? The answers are not hard to determine when there isn't someone there to spin them into something else.
The people and these companies do NOT know your struggles because they haven't lived them.
They have paid someone to tell them what your struggles are and then they paid someone else to tell them what your fears are.
Once they had both of those things they simply put out an ad saying "Vote Republican or else your worst fears will come true!" or "Vote Democrat because we want to help you out!" In order to have a fair and proper election we need campaign reform.
SuperPacs need to be eliminated immediately.
Candidates need to be held to account for misleading or incorrect advertisements.
Negative ads need to be properly vetted for truth and accuracy as well as to ensure they are more than just scare tactics and fear mongering.
I would much rather see a Romney ad where he describes HOW his business record will help America, or an Obama ad where he describes WHY we need to ramp up support programs.
I don't want to see Romney attacking welfare, he has no clue what it is! I don't want to see Obama talking about what grows business, he has never worked for one! Stop the spin, remove the rhetoric and try telling us the truth for a change.
We are already being inundated with ads and sound bytes, pundits and opinions.
You can't watch the news without someone making a political statement or jabbing at a political party.
This is the American election cycle at its best, and its worst.
The great thing about this process is that we get to hear about the candidate's message and their intentions.
We get to hear statistics about voting histories, work histories, choices they have made and problems they have resolved.
We get to find out what kind of family values they promote and we even get to hear from other people about how they feel about the candidate too.
We also get to hear about their failures.
We get blasted with numbers and percentages.
We get slapped with buzzwords and hot topics.
We get alternating messages of hope and promise with a big dose of fear and uncertainty.
Watching a couple of hours of television can make someone feel like they have been on a roller coaster of political awareness.
Welcome to political Spin.
"Spin" is the term used when something factual is reported from a different perspective in order to portray a different message.
As an example let's look at the Cold War.
During the Cold War the American and Russian governments both built up huge stockpiles of nuclear weapons and aimed them at each other.
The Americans, who just happened to be the only people to ever drop a nuclear device on another nation, claimed that their nuclear buildup was to ensure the safety of their people through the use of the nuclear deterrent.
At the same time, the Americans reported constantly and consistently that the Russian buildup was intended for offensive purposes.
So, while we built up a huge stockpile for safety, they built up a huge stockpile to prepare to attacks us.
Typical spin reporting.
Now, anyone with just a bit of common sense knows that both sides of the political coin utilize spin when they put out their messages and their advertisements.
Speeches are full of statistics that cannot be disproven without unraveling sixteen layers of spin and by then you've lost the listener and they have probably already made up their mind.
The political masterminds use the same word in different ways or different words to mean the same thing in an effort to confuse the listener so they can't check up on the facts later.
Let's take the current political battle and look at a simple example of spin.
Here's the setup: Democrats are claiming that President Obama's policies have created 4.
5 million new jobs over the past 29 months.
In rebuttal the Republicans are saying "That doesn't count government jobs", which is true.
In response to the response the Democrats say "We don't include the government jobs because the Republicans want smaller government and the public sector is what grows the economy".
So then the Republican response to the response of the first response is "In reality the nation is still out 316,000 jobs since the start of Obama's term.
" You see where this is going? Statistic after statistic after statistic used to confuse the listener and make it nearly impossible to determine who is right, who is wrong and who to vote for in the end.
The actual answer is both sides are right, all of those facts check out and have been validated by PolitiFact.
com.
So where do these confusing ads and statistics come from? They come from organizations that have been formed for the sole purpose of getting people like you and me to vote for a particular candidate.
These organizations aren't charities and they aren't civic organizations.
These aren't church groups and PTO members.
These are advertising firms with legal teams and number crunchers and their only intention is to come up with a way to make the other guy look bad, without breaking the law.
Where do they get their funding? Surely the candidates are not paying these people to blur the lines between truth and lie! Surely our next American President would not stoop to the level of confusing the electorate with smoke and mirrors in order to get them to vote outside of their normal beliefs! You're right, the next President is NOT paying these organizations to lie and deceive the American people...
American corporations and our wealthiest citizens are doing it.
According to The Center for Public Integrity ( www.
publicintegrity.
org ) both sides of the political battle are getting hit with ads on television, radio and in print media at record pace.
So called "Super PACs" are rolling in money and although they cannot directly contribute to a campaign, you would have to be as thick as they apparently think you are to believe they don't work together at all.
So why is this important and why does this need to change? The basic principle of a democratically elected government is that its leaders are elected by the people.
It has always simply been assumed that the people formed an "informed electorate".
Unfortunately, with the current dog and pony show of these campaigns there is no way the average citizen can be considered part of an informed electorate.
Both sides of this political battle are doing their best, officially and unofficially, to ensure that your vote is bought and paid for through misinformation, lies, threats, fear and uncertainty.
Very little is being said about how we move forward as a nation and how we tackle the hard problems we face.
I didn't see any charts or graphs showing where we are and where we want to be.
I didn't hear anyone in either convention say "Our plan is to cut the deficit and THIS is how we'll do it!", I simply heard "I am going to cut the deficit, and the other guy won't".
Heck, I could get on a stage and say that and I would really hope that you wouldn't believe me.
We are going into this election deciding on the future of our country based on 30 second snippets of incomplete data that has been massaged and manipulated to the point of being worthless.
We are going to cast our ballots for someone based on what major corporations and the wealthiest of Americans think we should believe about our daily struggles.
Do the wealthiest of Americans know how you feel when you are looking at your bank balance and deciding whether to fill your gas tank or hold onto some cash for groceries and emergencies? Do the Koch brothers know what it's like to endure pain day after day because you don't have health insurance to see a doctor? Do those rich Americans know how it feels to send your kids to school in worn out hand me downs because you've been laid off by a company that just donated millions of dollars to a SuperPac but they can't seem to afford your middle class wages? The answers are not hard to determine when there isn't someone there to spin them into something else.
The people and these companies do NOT know your struggles because they haven't lived them.
They have paid someone to tell them what your struggles are and then they paid someone else to tell them what your fears are.
Once they had both of those things they simply put out an ad saying "Vote Republican or else your worst fears will come true!" or "Vote Democrat because we want to help you out!" In order to have a fair and proper election we need campaign reform.
SuperPacs need to be eliminated immediately.
Candidates need to be held to account for misleading or incorrect advertisements.
Negative ads need to be properly vetted for truth and accuracy as well as to ensure they are more than just scare tactics and fear mongering.
I would much rather see a Romney ad where he describes HOW his business record will help America, or an Obama ad where he describes WHY we need to ramp up support programs.
I don't want to see Romney attacking welfare, he has no clue what it is! I don't want to see Obama talking about what grows business, he has never worked for one! Stop the spin, remove the rhetoric and try telling us the truth for a change.