Ann Medlock on Public Radio
Rockin on the Front Porch
This election season public radio stations all over the country, including this, your favorite one, have been teaming up with newspapers to bring new players into their coverage of politics. The new players—voters. What a concept.
You've noticed, have you, that campaigning sometimes looks like a couples dance between candidates and the press. Even worse are the solo numbers—when a candidate with big bucks can avoid the press, by just paying for hours of broadcasting—30 slick seconds at a time. But through these Front Porch forums, voters get to cut in on the dancers and talk—in the media—about what we think is important.
There are reports of politicians and, let's admit it, media pros who aren't exactly happy to have voters show up at their party. They know what to expect from each other — but voters are unknown, unqualified — who let them in here? Better we should keep quiet unless they ask us, through their pollsters, "So, are you buying this stuff?"
And we have to own up to letting them go on and on this way, as if it really were none of our business. Like the ancient lady who said she had never voted because "it only encourages them," it's tempting to look at their antics and say A pox on all your houses—I just want to live my life as well as I can and ignore all this garbage. Who needs to wade through all these issues and conflicting claims and mudslinging, looking for what's true, looking for what's right for ourselves—for our families—our country? Yeah. We do. You and me. Because those antics affect our lives, our children's lives. Big time.
But it's more than just protecting our interests. Sam Harris, a guy who stuck his neck out to start a grassroots lobby on hunger and poverty issues, was once asked how he saw the Senators and Representatives he lobbied all day. He said—"lonely." Not greedy, corrupt, egotistical, stupid, or petty — lonely. The few of us who vote, do that (whether we really understand what we're voting on or not). And then we ignore the winners—except to rant about them for not doing whatever we think they should be doing. But do we help? Do we study the issues they're dealing with and let them know what we're thinking? Do we give them ideas for solutions they could get behind? Do we say thanks when they get something right? Yeah sure. If I were in office I'd certainly never get re-elected because I'd tell voters they're a sorry lot of lazy, whining complainers. (A politician yelling Grow up!—now that's a picture.) But why should politicians respect people who make their voting decisions based on shallow, trumped-up, mudslinging sound bites? Politicians may be screwing up at their jobs, but so are we. Being a citizen, having the vote, is a job. One that the Founders expected would be taken seriously. Voters were supposed to work at keeping themselves informed. Yes that means reading the fine print, checking out voting records, going beyond the slick ads and the practised one-liners, demanding accountability. These Front Porch Forums can remind us that we're supposed to get into this and stay in, not just during elections, but year after year, week in and week out. A drag? Unhuh. Fascinating? Sometimes. The only way it's going to get better? Youbetterbelieveit. |
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