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ThatDamnedPanda -> RE: Bachmann Beseeches: Don't Palinize Me!!!! (8/15/2009 11:27:24 AM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Musicmystery
quote:
Sure, but none of those people would have been even close to being in a position to run for office if it hadn't been for their celebrity. It was their fame that got them there, in every case.
This seems a silly bit of rant, Panda. ANYONE running has to have people who know who they are and will then campaign and vote for them. Politics = celebrity. I'm unknown, so vote for me?
Democracy is a numbers game. Elections depend on publicity. They have to. There isn't any other way.
The difference is, they did it the easy way. They got famous on television, and used that recognition as entertainers to gain credibility with the voters. Getting recognized and becoming known to the voters is the hardest part of a politician's job, and people who aren't already famous have to work very hard at it over a long period of time. The have to do it the old-fashioned way - they go out and put themselves in front of the people, saying, "Here's who i am and what i believe in. Here's what i want to do, and here's how I plan to do it." They do it over and over and over again, and if the people like what they hear, the candidate gains recognition, gains credibility, gains momentum. If their message doesn't connect with people, they get weeded out.
By the time a politician is in a position to run for a serious higher office, they've got a track record. The voters have a pretty good idea of not only who they are, but what they believe in and how effective they are at making it happen. How they behave under pressure, how hard they work, how honest they are, a lot of things that are pretty important to know about someone who's asking for the kind of responsibility a senator or governor is going to have. When you have guys like Ventura or Scharzenegger or Franken just skip that whole seasoning process, go straight to the head of the line just because their face is familiar, you don't know shit about how qualified they are for the job they're asking for. They haven't done anything to prove themselves; they just jump to the head of the line because they've got a familiar face. And you wind up with simpleminded ideologues like Reagan, psychotic buffoons like Ventura, or inneffectual governors like Schwarzenegger.
All I'm saying is, if a politican works their way up through the process, over the course of a few years you can at least get some idea of how qualified they are for higher office. It's not always perfect, but it's much better information than you can get from watching somebody crack sarcastic jokes on television or shoot at robots on a movie screen.
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