Sunday, November 14, 2004

 

Speed-dating, Meet The Electoral System

There's been much talk about the role that "values" played in the presidential election. Which values were never specified, leaving each side free to substitute those of its choice in denigrating or applauding the trend, as the case may be.

But has anyone stopped to consider why this issue crops up now and - its exit-poll source notwithstanding - I think it has merit.

Here's my theory: it's because of the decline of the MSM. Most people know they can't trust their nightly news, and the few who do are usually the same people who claim that OBL works for George Bush; not a cohort to which others aspire.

If issues and policies and details are unknowable except to those willing to google and surf each one ad nauseum, what's left save for character and values?

As Sherlock Holmes said, if you eliminate all other possibilities, what's left is the truth. The truth today is that the MSM's credibility is so low that their reports are being treated by the public as little more than background music, heard but not listened to, while sizing a candidate up. And who can blame them?