Even though I am Canadian, I am a long-time listener to U.S. talk radio, especially conservative talkers like Rush, Hannity, and Fox News/Talk. But I sometimes listen to the local liberal talk radio station here, and it's disturbing how different the pictures they paint are. Taking the current financial crisis as an example, if you listen to the rightists, then McCain is a hero for taking action in an attempt to end the crisis, while Obama looks like a dithering fool for saying he'd be around if anybody needed him. However, if you listen to the leftists, then either McCain is a coward for ducking the debate (even though he's publicly challenged Obama to a "town-hall" style debate multiple times), or he's hijacking the democratic process.
My point is that despite the ideological differences, the U.S. people are being forced to endorse the same two-party system their parents, their grandparents, and even their great-grandparents did. In economics, it's called an oligopoly (one step removed from a monopoly), and a dangerous by-product of oligopoly is collusion (which, in effect, creates a monopoly). The MSM (which IMO is overwhelmingly pro-left) is complicit in this problem, because it's too much of an effort for them to seek other perspectives and publicize them, because the returns (i.e., viewership/readership/listenership) don't justify the effort in their eyes. I know that news is a business, and it's as much about making money than any other enterprise, but news outlets have a responsibility to provide as complete a picture as possible to their audience, so that they can make the best possible choices; otherwise, they shouldn't pretend that they do (such as the NYT's slogan, "All the news that's fit to print"). But if Christian, Libertarian, Environmentalist, or other political parties aren't allowed a forum for their views, then the media are not doing their job, and the electorate are not being provided a real choice.
Here in Canada, where we're also in a federal election campaign, we've had more volatility in our political system. In recent years we've gone from 3 political parties to 4 or 5 (at one point I think we even had six when there was a schism within the socialist New Democratic Party). In fact, I believe the Internet has been a great help to me in that I can find information on nearly all the available political parties, and I can seek out the website of the one party in which I most believe. Of course, this leads to the possibility of a minority government, which is what our last Parliament was, but there are also good things about that kind of government (it forces different political parties to reach a consensus on issues for the good of Parliament as a whole). I guess what I'm saying is this: if a little competition is good for business, then is it not also good for politics?
26 Sep 2008, 6:18 pm
