August 26th: Grossly Overly Politicized

Watching the 2016 Presidential race heat up from outside of the country has been a fascinating cultural experience. As a general rule, the information is mostly volunteer access, meaning that I have to go find the information, rather than the more standard American access, which is less of a choice and more of an overwhelming avalanche. That being said, it puts the burden on the consumer of the information to look for a balance of opinions and to see a variety of perspectives.

Take, for example, the recent GOP debate that took place in Cleveland earlier this month. I was unable to watch the debate first-hand live; it was taking place at 3 AM local time. Waking up the next morning, every news source and social medium had an influx of information, not only breaking down the content of each candidate’s platform, but also dissecting every detail of HOW that information was presented.

I started on social media (my favorite and most biased outlet), which primarily consisted of reactions from non-professionals. These were everyday Americans, the voters, commenting and critiquing the candidates that they would one day see on a ballot. The opinions generally skewed to the left, as most of my digital community share my liberal ideals.

Next, I moved to my news outlets of choice. Primarily, I like the coverage of USA Today, because it is one of the few newspapers in the country that has done the best work to transition into digital and online formats, making it easy to access traditional journalism styles in a modern format. I explored what the journalistic community had to share about the event. Again, USA Today tends to sit on the left side of the aisle, and even more so CNN. Much of what I found on these pages were breakdowns of the ways that candidates presented themselves, the politicking between individuals on the podium, and collections of soundbites that had Republicans digging at each other and looking to crack holes in their opponents.

So far, I had found almost no actual issue-based coverage so I gritted my teeth and headed to Fox News. I generally don’t enjoy Fox’s coverage, as they are way too far to the right for me, and their bias is far too easily identified, but in this case, when looking at a GOP debate that was, in fact, hosted by Fox, I was intrigued to see how they would cover it. Better than any other news source, there were details about what exactly each candidate stood for, and how well they got that point across.

After almost 2 hours of research, I felt like I had a decent understanding of what happened and where each candidate stood on various issues. Considering how easy it is to find SOME information, I was very surprised to learn how hard I had to work to find ALL of the information.

It is easy to blame my absence from the country for the difficulty. In reality, though, it is just as hard in America to see through all of the biases and angles to get to the real issue: the issues. We can find easy information about the feud between Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell (ok, his feud with women in general), but what will he actually do to create greater stability in the Middle East? We know that Rand Paul is being a child in criticizing Chris Christie for hugging President Obama after Hurricane Sandy, but where does Paul stand when it comes to disaster relief?

Our gathering of information has turned into a full time job. We are bombarded with so much information about the political world that we now need to distinguish between what is real and what is crap. As hard is it might be, we need to do it, for fear that we will be unwitting bystanders in a system that encourages our politicians to belittle us, condescend us, and avoid us, for fear that we may actually demand that they lead.

The major theme of the Zoot Perspective’s evaluation of the next 15 months of the Presidential race is that we need to elevate the level of debate. We need to be asking the right questions and demanding that our politicians give us real, honest answers. I only get one vote, but I am going to make you earn it, Mr(s). Soon-To-Be-President.

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January 21st: Strength of a Union

A transcript of the State of the Union Address can be found here.

Last night’s State of the Union was a social media explosion, as has become the case for most events of its size and nature. The resounding opinion was that this was Obama’s greatest one yet, and that his confidence and determination brought new hope to a presidency that has, in recent months, seen a dramatic decline in support.

As a nation, it is great to see our leader demonstrating such bold strength and confidence. It inspires those feelings within ourselves. What happens today, the day after such a declaration, though, is what defines its success.

The primary focus of last night’s speech was to highlight the progress the country has made in the past several years, and note areas where the president would like to see progress and, in some cases, where he refuses to accept decline. The speech’s thesis statement was that “the shadow of crisis has passed, and the state of the Union is strong.” Comforting words, no doubt, for a nation that needs a little hope, amid a world that continually looks to be falling apart.

The idealism was palpable. A strong focus was placed on the middle class, centered around the notion of equalling the playing field, not for the purpose of dragging down the elite, but for the chance to elevate those who do not get a fair chance. He said “That’s what middle class economics is -- the idea that this country does best when everyone gets their fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same set of rules.” One country, striving together to lead the world is exactly the type of image that we all need to hear about. The challenge becomes making it a reality.

Now, as we review the materials, it will be easy to slip back into the partisanship that has plagued the last six years. We leave the shared goals of a strong, united nation because of the distraction of the details along the way. Yet, in President Obama’s speech, he speaks directly to this issue. The words that ring clearest today for me from last night are when the president addressed not only the possibility for disagreement, but rather the need for it.

He said “If we’re going to have arguments, let’s have arguments -- but let’s make them debates worthy of this body and worthy of this country.” Obama knows that he will not say some magic words and suddenly have Republicans and Democrats getting along. He knows that the gridlock will continue, and that the aisle will continue to divide us. But the point of a speech like this is to remind us that there IS an option, that we can find ways to disagree while also striving for the shared goals of a single nation.

We now need responses from two different groups to turn last night’s emotion into today’s action. We need President Obama to continue to play that role that he did last night. We need him to continue to be sassy, to be strong, to be willing to have meaningful debates and be ready to listen. We need a leader who will be willing to stand above the drama of Washington and steer the country as a whole where the people need and want it to go. We also need Congress to have listened. The time for crossed arms, grumpy faces, and fingers in our ears are gone. We can’t afford that anymore. Representatives of the people in the federal government owe it to this nation to continue to work for what is best for the country, not what is best for keeping one’s seat or pandering to a certain demographic.

Some might say that these are dreams, fun to talk about in a speech, but impossible to get done. This isn’t what real government looks like, they might say. The problem is, government ceases to look as it should, and we now have the ability AND the need to fix it.

Last night’s speech concluded with another powerful statement. In his conclusion, he said “We’ve laid a new foundation. A brighter future is ours to write. Let’s begin this new chapter -- together -- and let’s start the work right now.”

Last night’s speech brought with it a heavy dose of idealism. Idealism is nearly impossible to actually enact. There are pitfalls and there are challenges. Yet, that is why we set the bar so high: so that we know that this country can be the greatest in the world, if only we were willing to make it so.

Well, let’s get to work.