YM Blog-a-Thon: Politically Unplugged
Blog, Eming Piansay,
YO! Youth Outlook Multimedia, Oct 22, 2008
Official Participant in the Youth Media Blog-a-Thon
If the November 4th Presidential election were my significant other -- I would have broken it off months ago.
I had high hopes for this one. Really. I did. In 2004, shortly after I saw newly elected Sen. Barack Obama give his speech at the Democratic National Convention I hoped that one day I would be able to call him my President.
Now, I’m so jaded with irritation at the mere mention of John McCain and Barack Obama, I can’t sit through the nightly news during dinner. Or when my mom and dad talk about how the McCain campaign is stirring a storm of ridiculousness against Obama – I quickly scarf down my food before retreating my room and turning my iPod on blast.
I thought the moments leading up to November 4th would be topnotch and worth every minute I sat in front of the TV soaking in the back and forth jabs of the candidates.
But, now? Now, I find the Saturday Night Live skits are more worth watching than the actual debates. Not because they’re funny, but I feel if you took off the political lingo filter, that is what the candidates would actually be saying.
Now, I just want it to be November 5th and move on with my life. Because honestly, if the debates did anything it just made you want to vote for your guy more – that is unless you’re undecided. Although -- I personally don’t see how that’s possible.
If anything, election process has taught me anything it is to be filled with cynicism.
The 2000 and 2004 elections marked my gradual slide into complete utter frustration with our political system. I felt so helpless; feeling like my little ballot was just a piece of paper compared to what was going on with the Electoral College.
And then in 2008, I witnessed the country tear itself to bits on the sex and race issue, and it broke my heart because I always thought as Americans we were above such petty arguments – but I guess my naivety got the better of me.
Even now the views that so many of us carry deter our ability to see these candidates as people. We become so focused on the propaganda titles that are created, identities based on fear and emotions that are made to provoke a negative reaction. To me, how I’ve always thought politics was supposed to be, that isn’t politics. Hell, it sounds more like high school.
Let the best person win, not the person with the best smear campaign – it just means you’re good at talking dragging someone’s name through the mud – doesn’t mean you’re a qualified leader. Barack Osama? C’mon people. Really?
The race between McCain and Obama feels like a political civil war of words that has great potential to become something more. No matter who wins –I have a feeling neither side is going to sit back and accept it. This election has revealed the angry mob in all of us. And as much as I want to unplug myself from that state of mind, the idea of going through another election similar to 2000 is just too infuriating to even consider.
-- Eming Piansay
1 of 1
If the November 4th Presidential election were my significant other -- I would have broken it off months ago.
I had high hopes for this one. Really. I did. In 2004, shortly after I saw newly elected Sen. Barack Obama give his speech at the Democratic National Convention I hoped that one day I would be able to call him my President.
Now, I’m so jaded with irritation at the mere mention of John McCain and Barack Obama, I can’t sit through the nightly news during dinner. Or when my mom and dad talk about how the McCain campaign is stirring a storm of ridiculousness against Obama – I quickly scarf down my food before retreating my room and turning my iPod on blast.
I thought the moments leading up to November 4th would be topnotch and worth every minute I sat in front of the TV soaking in the back and forth jabs of the candidates.
But, now? Now, I find the Saturday Night Live skits are more worth watching than the actual debates. Not because they’re funny, but I feel if you took off the political lingo filter, that is what the candidates would actually be saying.
Now, I just want it to be November 5th and move on with my life. Because honestly, if the debates did anything it just made you want to vote for your guy more – that is unless you’re undecided. Although -- I personally don’t see how that’s possible.
If anything, election process has taught me anything it is to be filled with cynicism.
The 2000 and 2004 elections marked my gradual slide into complete utter frustration with our political system. I felt so helpless; feeling like my little ballot was just a piece of paper compared to what was going on with the Electoral College.
And then in 2008, I witnessed the country tear itself to bits on the sex and race issue, and it broke my heart because I always thought as Americans we were above such petty arguments – but I guess my naivety got the better of me.
Even now the views that so many of us carry deter our ability to see these candidates as people. We become so focused on the propaganda titles that are created, identities based on fear and emotions that are made to provoke a negative reaction. To me, how I’ve always thought politics was supposed to be, that isn’t politics. Hell, it sounds more like high school.
Let the best person win, not the person with the best smear campaign – it just means you’re good at talking dragging someone’s name through the mud – doesn’t mean you’re a qualified leader. Barack Osama? C’mon people. Really?
The race between McCain and Obama feels like a political civil war of words that has great potential to become something more. No matter who wins –I have a feeling neither side is going to sit back and accept it. This election has revealed the angry mob in all of us. And as much as I want to unplug myself from that state of mind, the idea of going through another election similar to 2000 is just too infuriating to even consider.
-- Eming Piansay
1 of 1
