By Jennifer D. Kluge, Publisher
September 10, 2008
After watching both the Democratic and Republican conventions, I was disappointed with the state of modern politics. Is this what our founding fathers wanted? Did they want glam and show biz, along with what I felt in that moment, the manipulation of the American people? It seemed the focus was more about looking pretty and acting the part. Whatever happened to brains, knowledge, savoir-faire about world affairs? Aren’t the valedictorians and Harvard grads supposed to be President of the United States?
After thinking about it a bit more, I realize that in a roundabout way, the voice of the people are being heard with a bit more zeal than required. So what if the political parties dramatize and create Hollywood around the issues? The drama creates votes, which hopefully represent the issues Americans are truly feeling.
However, there is still a disconnect between what the candidates say they are going to do and what is absolutely necessary to move the country forward. This is where I struggle with the manipulation of issues to get votes. Will Barack Obama really make change happen, or will he have the very same hard-pressing issues that George W. Bush has now? Will Sarah Palin really matter once in office, or perhaps she is a tool to get a needed conservative vote. John McCain — will he “just drill” the first month in office or will there be months of drama before any real action happens. If any.
Results and accountability are truly overlooked in modern politics. I wouldn’t run a company the way these candidates run countries, or run campaigns, for that matter. In fact, if you look at performance, as a CEO, many of our past Presidents of the United States would have been fired by their board of directors. Hmmm, what if the American people could hold Presidents accountable for results? Now there’s a concept that the Founding Fathers could get behind.
