Programmed Disenfranchisement

As much as John Edwards may complain about being pushed out of the media spotlight, we have to wonder how important the media spotlight is. For some reason, some time along the course of history, we in America have come to equate democracy with compromise. While compromise is good and can help get legislation moving, at other times, people are willing to compromise way too much, such as the 6% of Ron Paul supporters who changed their vote to fit their ideas about what other people thought. Human beings are social creatures, but this is clearly socialization taken to the point of serving to propagate gross logical fallacies. Whether it's an appeal to base emotions, such as "Double Gitmo" remarks, or your typical political ad hominem, such as referring to a candidate as a crazy relative, or or your commonplace straw man, such as mentioning the decade-old racist remarks in a newsletter written under Ron Paul's name while he was in private practice, yet not mention the fact that he has addressed those remarks in the same way for the past ten years. I only make such a fuss about each of these, because they serve to better illustrate, as we have done over the course of this election season, the narrow depth of coverage offered by most outlets of the mainstream media. To be fair, the news corporations are only trying to give people what they want to see, right? Probably not. Exhibit A. Exhibit B. I include "election" to serve as a kind of comparison between the two groups. It would appear that most of the candidates have something to be upset about, but Ron Paul supporters have the most to be upset about.

I have a bone to pick with them, though. If one looks at the graph, "Ron Paul" is more popular than all of them, even "election." I have a hard time believing that there is this berth of support for Ron Paul, though, as it certainly isn't reflected in the polls, which leads me to several possible conclusions. The most likely, is that Ron Paul supporters can't or won't vote for whatever reason, be it for felony charges or apathy. However, another is that more people did actually vote for Ron Paul at the several primaries that have been held so far and their votes were counted improperly, which also leads me to be angry at such voters, as they don't care enough about their vote to ensure that it's counted properly.