ShareThisSomething popular in Philippine politics for decades, is just recently taking place in American politics today. If no one is noticing, try Sarah Palin, Christine O’Donnell and Kristi Noem. What do all these women have in common other than being Tea Party favorites, short on resume and lacking in experience?
If your answer was, all three women are attractive then, you got it right. One Fox TV host even bragged about having great looking women in the Republican ticket as opposed to their regular, if not plain looking counterparts in the Democratic Party, like politics was some kind of a beauty contest.
But it might as well be. If it were a beauty contest, these Republican women would be run away winners. Of course Sarah Palin is still weighing her options for the 2012 national elections. Meanwhile, she’s busy throwing her weight around and seizing every opportunity to make money off her phenomenal popularity and making big time endorsements of Tea Party candidates. But who can blame her? Anybody in her shoes would do it; why shouldn’t she?
It was an old trend in the Philippines, having actors and actresses running for government offices. They were banking on their mass popularity and were undeterred by their lack of professional qualifications, legislative or administrative experience. The result had been disastrous. Either these stars just sat it out or sleep in Congress all throughout their terms or, they just contributed to the roster of corrupt politicians making money off their positions whenever they can.
Here in the U.S. with the US Supreme Court opening the floodgates for unlimited corporate money in politics, American elections could only go down to the dogs. Corporate interests can greatly influence the results of elections. Negative campaign ads against candidates marked as corporate enemies will be run on television, radio and newspapers non stop and without mercy, until voters’ perception of the truth gets convoluted and the corporate candidate, gravely unqualified and inferior though she or he might be, wins.
The scary thing is, pretty soon the US Congress and maybe even the Executive and Judicial branches of government will be filled with corporate puppets whose main goal is to protect corporate or giant business interests to the detriment of the public.
Voters must be extra careful in casting their votes on this November 2 elections. The trick is not to be swayed by political extremism. Get information not just from one or two but from several sources and determine which of these writers or opinion makers are more objective and credible. Learn to separate the grain from the chaff.
What qualifications does each candidate possess? What are their positions on issues of great importance to you? What have they done in the past that would give you reason to believe that they would make good or bad leaders? Have they offered solutions to the problems they are complaining about and are these solutions really going to work? Who appears sincere?
When one candidate is pitted against another with impressive academic record, sterling family background, long list of congressional achievements and undeniably firm grasp of the issues relevant to our lives, how much thinking must a voter do to pick the right one for the job?
Corporate money can only go so far. If people could separate the chaff from the grain, if they could see beyond the empty rhetoric and know where to find the substance, we still stand a chance to save our government and country from the greed of corporate giants.