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Does Politics Matter Anymore?
(Yes, more than ever)
No one cares about politics anymore; at least that's what the polls show. Televised presidential debates don't draw viewers. Campaign commercials don't change voters' minds. It's not like the old days when you could get into a good heated exchange over dinner with an uncle or a neighbor over the President's stand on civil rights or foreign policy, what Congress was going to do next, and whether the media was reporting from the left or right. Or when college campuses were teeming with political activity-radical, reactionary, and stay-the-course. Opinions mattered, involvement was a must, caring was paramount. Those days are pretty much gone.
Political commentators tell us why. They say that voters see government as out of touch with the concerns and values of the people, in the pocket of special interests, and now, when the country is flourishing economically, increasingly irrelevant. Business is booming, crime is down, and America is playing a leading role in the family of nations. But for most people, the national transformation appears less the byproduct of government leadership, and more the result of American ingenuity, creativity, and self-reliance.
True or not, this good news has had at least one chilling side-effect. It may be lulling us into a political deep sleep with dangerous consequences. Are these good times numbing us? Recent polls indicate that we don't care that much about the campaign finance scandals. We seem to be reconciled to the fact that the high-stakes, highly objectionable, deals between public and private sector leaders are an inevitable-if not acceptable-part of Washington life. Such deals are of little immediate consequence to our own lives, the polls suggest. If the economy is good, life is good. And if life is good, there is nothing to worry about. Let Washington do as it wishes, it won't affect us, not really.
Don't believe it. Those deals aren't just for money to win elections, those deals are to cut in stone the direction of public policy in America and the world for decades to come.
The fact is we, the American people, have lost-or are in extreme danger of losing-our power to set the public policy agenda for our government, for the nation. How did we lose it? Principally, in two ways: the buyout of the politicians and the buyout of the press. Those hefty PAC and corporate contributions certainly do influence our leaders' decisions. And special interests often do take precedence over national interests, particularly on the big-ticket items, such as health care reforms, energy policies, corporate subsidies, and biotech regulations. Also, the fact that many of these same special interests are buying up the major media outlets does dictate, or at least severely restrict, the scope and depth of information about the issues that reach the American people. But for my money, the most damaging development, which is tied inextricably to special interest influence and the media buyout, is the shutting down of third parties in America. I know that sounds odd, because most people these days hardly consider third parties. And that is the problem.