The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Ah, politicians - the gift that keeps on giving. A Washington Post article Jon Stewart, Enemy of Democracy states in essence that Jon Stewart and his Daily Show may single handedly be the reason young people are not voting. That's like saying Ann Coulter is the Jersey Girls' best friend! Bear in mind Stewart doesn't gather nor report the news - that comes from the news media. He compiles it. He also conveys more with a raised eyebrow or a pregnant pause than any of the screaming heads do in the entirty of their programs.

I can't believe these "studies" are given any credence or that anyone undertakes them in the first place. I can tell you why young people don't vote. Look at what choices are put before them. Let's look at Presidential politics alone, remembering image is now everything and substance nothing.

Bush 1 and Quayle. Bush was aging, tired and impatient. Quayle was Quayle next to Lloyd Benston.

Clinton, while young, articulate and charismatic, was morally flawed. Gore was wooden.

To vote partisan one must be partisan. I would guess youg folks tend not to be since they have no interest in the first place.

Clinton/Gore second term. Clinton grew into the Presidency but the flaws continued to haunt him, indeed peaked. Gore invented the internet.

Dole/Kemp. I couldn't identify with them what's more anyone a generation younger.

Bush/Cheney. Swaggering, cocky and inarticulate. We may want younger but at least old enough to know how to talk. Cheney was the comfort zone. It was unknown at the time he was an angry and tunnel visioned hawk.

Gore/Lieberman. Wooden would have been better than the constant search for a younger, hipper image that changed daily. Lieberman was aging and lacked passion.

Bush/Cheney second term. How could anybody not beat them. Run Kerry/Edwards.

Want to get young people to vote? Find out the issues that are important to them and act on them. Find some new blood. listen to what candidates say and hold their feet to the fire. Run candidates who care more about the country then themselves and partisan politics. That would be novel. Look at the wanna be's that are testing the waters. If that isn't enough to make you not want to vote I don't know what is.

Hopefully someone, in either party or a third, will emerge from the pack that actually has the intellect, the passion for and love of country to actually fill a suit. Just once I'd like to see a candidate at any level of government have the fortitude to state his/her case and let the chips fall where they may. If that should happen perhaps Jon Stewart could go back to being a comedian rather than representing our political conscience. He's no "enemy of democracy"; he's its watchdog.