It’s a little unnerving. It’s a little like watching someone bang their head against the wall. It’s like someone showing everyone a shiny prize they won, but they aren’t holding anything.
What am I talking about? Social media politics.
You might wonder what the difference is from actual politics, and the answer is… everything.
See real politics knows what to promise in order to get people to buy in. Social media politics thinks the promises are real, and the glamorous “When I’m president!” speeches are more than just brilliant PR.
I don’t care what side you are on when it comes to politics, if what most of you put on social media is how you really think… I’m afraid for our country.
What I personally love about politics is the verbal smoke and mirrors: what is true and what is not. I am actually the biggest nerd when it comes to fact checking. Maybe I have afar superior journalism degree than most (cough, Go Cats) or maybe that’s just how my brain works, but I have always been that way. The problem with a lot of opinion is they lack any truth, and although politics has very little to do with that, it still needs to be addressed when making comments ABOUT politics.
Yes, it is complicated.
For example, let’s say a presidential candidate promises everyone a million dollars when they become president. Sure it looks pretty when you say it, and you HOPE it’s true, so you vote for them because who doesn’t want a million dollars?
So say candidate gets elected, one thing you failed to consider in this ‘promise’ is the president is not a dictator. He doesn’t actually make the rules. He doesn’t actually have as much power as he led you to believe in his campaign. He failed to mention one little detail.
CONGRESS.
Yes friends. The word that stops all of the campaign hope at the door. In fact I think our current president actually ran with that word as the platform and his “to-do list” was pretty much reduced to a single thing. (And it could still be repealed.)
See when you consider a candidate for president you have to consider how their policies will work with CONGRESS, because without the legislative branch the president can do almost nothing. There is never a guarantee that control will flip to the president’s party, enter 2014 elections.
Which is why we live in the great country of the United States.
Then if both of those things are not fail safe, we have another group of people ready to delivery a giant dose of humility. The judicial branch. The big brother that waits to strike down bills whose heads are too big for their bodies.
So back to how this fits with social media.
Most articles and posts and political rants, lack common sense with the basic make up of the total branches of government.
The political atmosphere on social begins to mirror the glamorous, filtered, “FB approved” posts about our everyday lives. They look good on the outside, but ignorance is bliss. We need to move away from this idea that the promises are real and the policies are what we have been waiting for our entire lives, because they aren’t. Not even close. They are MEANT to appear that way on purpose.
They best way to evaluate presidential candidates is to look at the resume of Congress as a whole. That is the candidate who can actually do something in our country and continue our legacy.
Real talk. Personally, if you think that anyone but a moderate conservative will get anything passed in Congress you are crazy. If you think that any bill that smells like socialism will even get a second glance from Congress you are dreaming.
Who will get something done? Who will work with Congress to appeal to the whole? Who will at times back down from certain reform that they want in order to do what the country needs? Who will also do it within their power and the power of the people (judicial)?
Those are the questions we should ask. The United States as a country DOES NOT have to survive. It is not impenetrable. It is not invincible. This election, to me, elevates every American’s false sense of security. If you want real change, we need to get away from “Pinterest politics” tied in a bow, and jump into the real messy world that exists in Washington, because like it or not, that is the only way the US will continue to exist and to thrive.
Most importantly: vote. No matter who you are voting for, it tells everyone who has ever fought for our freedom “thank you.”
Learning as I go Along... 