tertained?” A famous line from Ridley Scott’s Gladiator perfectly sums up the 2016 presidential elections.
From the overly dramatic debates to the bold campaign commercials on every platform, the 2016 presidential debates are, in two words, reality TV.
America has been known as “The Land of Entertainment” since the rise of Hollywood in the early 1900s, and its influence has only grown since.
We love our dramas, our crime shows, our so-called ‘reality’ shows. The majority of the populace — 318.9 million as of 2014 — doesn’t care about documentaries and educational television.
Even the name ‘educational television’ sounds like a punishment.
It’s just a fact. We’d rather loaf on our sofas and couches watching “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” than an hour special on big business in the 1890s.
Normally, this wouldn’t be such a terrible thing. One could take a survey around downtown Fort Myers and ask 50 people, “Who was the second president of the United States?”
They’d likely get a fraction of those 50 with the right answer (John Adams). It’s a tragic thought, but it’s history.
Even if it’s for our own country, I’m willing to let it slide to a certain degree.
But now we’ve brought that ignorance to the present.
Way back when the government was just starting to walk on its own, there was an idea. Elections: Where two men would campaign around the (albeit much smaller) country trying to win America’s votes using charisma, a solid platform and some experience along with it. They wanted to be president because they wanted to lead a great nation and had the intelligence to do it.
They did not want to be president because their political party was pulling their strings and feeding them politically correct propaganda.
The 2016 election is so far gone from what the United States presidential campaign was supposed to be that it really is a reality show — and a terrible one at that. And the American people let it happen.
We, as a general populace, don’t want to hear political ‘mumbo-jumbo,’ don’t want to hear all these facts and figures that may or may not be true.
We want to be entertained. The problem is though that the presidency is not a laughing matter. I’m sorry to say that “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” has no effect on real world problems (other than making blissful ignorance all the more appealing). It doesn’t matter outside of our borders. Not to pick on them specifically, they’re just one of many shows that offers no substance, no intelligence, and no purpose.
Is that what we want the debates to be? This is the president of the United States of America. Just let that sink in for a moment.
Whoever wins come November will be the face of the country for the next four years. Our economy, international relationships, department of education, defense, tax money and everything else are all tied to that person.
This country is like a child playing with their parent’s gun. We don’t know what we’re doing with the power we have, and we just might accidentally shoot our friends.
Build a wall with Mexico? Has it really come to this? The rest of the world is biting their nails and cowering in their homes because whoever becomes president just might decide that they’re not useful anymore.
Despite all of our economic and social problems, we’re not a nation to be underestimated, nor trifled with. We’re not a reality show. And yet, I fear for this election year, we’ve already sealed our fate.
