This short clip of black voters being interviewed in Harlem is clean in content, even though it comes from Howard Stern. It's worth listening to because it's probably a good representation of voters across the US. Most people do not vote on the issues, but on charisma – which is sad for the rest of us who worry about the reality of day to day life and not whether someone is warm and likeable. Please pass this on to others.
http://www.bpmdeejays.com/upload/hs_sal_in_Harlem_100108.mp3
I responded with this:
There are plenty of people like this on both sides. The fact of the matter is that for a long time many people have cared more about character than content. I think much of the blame can be attributed to politics itself, not the people. Here are a few reasons why.
1. The 2 party system means people don't need to even pay attention. They can just align themselves to one side and always vote that way.
2. Campaigns are run with an emphasis on character. Look at McCain's VP pick Sarah Palin. She stands for many things that McCain has fought for much of his career, and has little experience in public office, but she was chosen simply for her character. Look at how McCain's campaign is attacking Obama's character. Biden has, rarely, attacked McCain's character too. They run negative campaigns because they are statisticly known to have a bigger impact. Remember Bush's attacks on Kerry's service in Vietnam? That is widely believed to be the reason Bush won in 2004.
3. Television. There are a million reasons why TV has exacerbated the problem. I don't think I need to explain all of them. TV could have been a tool to get the issues out, and it still can be.
4. Promises. Even if we judge the candidates by where they stand on the issues and their promises, we have no reason to believe promises will be kept, and we have no reason to believe these candidates won't ever change on any issues.
So we can't judge a candidate based on their promises, and the majority of messages we get from the campaigns are attacks. Why WOULDN'T people vote on character?
If you think voting on character is something bad, then I would be surprised you are a McCain supporter. For weeks he has done nothing but attack Obama's character. If character is something that doesn't matter to you, then I see no reason why those ads would effect you.
Heres an example of 2 attacks, 1 from McCain, 1 from Obama.
McCain - Obama "pals around with terrorists."
Obama - McCain "has voted with Bush over 90% of the time."
McCain's attack is about character, and is a perfect example of the kind of politics that cause people to focus on character INSTEAD of issues. Obama's attack is about voting record, which is one of the only good ways to make a decision in my opinion.
I do not vote based on charisma or character. Whether those are important things to consider when voting is debatable. My vote is based on the voting record of these two candidates, as well as how they have run their campaigns. McCain is running a negative campaign about Obama's character, and Obama is running a campaign about McCain's voting record.
McCain's record is that he voted with Bush 90% of the time. I do not like Bush's policies at all, so I also would not like 90% of Bush's policies either. Bush gave tax cuts to the rich, reduced funding to science, wire-tapped, went to war without any other country and without UN approval based on false intelligence, allowed that war to last for years, tortured, created Homeland Security, authorized the extensive use of military contractors from private companies instead of actual federal employees and US military, and failed with Katrina.
McCain agreed with all of these things that Bush did with the exception of torture. Obama disagreed with most of them. These are simple facts. These are records. These are not promises or charisma or character arguments.
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