The Empty Election
Never before have voters people had more opportunities to participate in the political conversation; share and disseminate information, and speak directly to our political leaders. Yet the dialogue coming from both parties is as dysfunctional and corrosive as it has ever been in a campaign.
This has been a relentlessly nasty, divisive and vapid race. The only way to achieve victory has been through negative advertising — where the candidates play a secondary role to Super PACs.
The result has been a declining level of confidence, both domestic and international, about our leadership role. Our political system, once the ideal, is now a subject of widespread ridicule.
Enthusiasm about voting in the election is down across the board, according to Gallup’s latest poll. The GOP primary campaign has been marked by low voter turnout as well as widespread dissatisfaction among Republicans with what were the four leading contenders.
Indeed, the only people who appear enthused are the handful of mega-donors, bundlers, lobbyists, hedge fund managers and inside-the-Beltway powerbrokers now cutting deals, funding ad wars and propping up weakening primary contenders through massive cash injections.
Mitt Romney’s negative rating, for example, vastly exceeds his positive. Roughly 50 percent of voters view the former Massachusetts governor unfavorably in the most recent ABC News/ Washington Post poll, while only 34 percent are favorable. Voters have no clear sense of what Romney stands for, what his administration will mean and why his candidacy is at all relevant to the electorate’s deep-seated and systematic angst and fear about their economic futures.
What Fehnstrom didn’t say, and what most commentators have missed, is that whatever Romney ultimately writes on the sketchboard is unlikely to be responsive to the problems facing America. Three-quarters of voters now believe that our elected leaders in Washington govern without the consent of the people, a majority of Americans think that the nation is in decline and believe that their children will not be able to achieve the American Dream, according to Gallup.
Thanks, Conks.
