RL: American Voters Are Easy

 The title of this article was inspired by the Earth Girls Are Easy movie title with 'RL' standing for Real Life.

Of course, saying that any girl is easy in today's venacular means that it does not take much time or effort to gain sexual favors from them. And so when one says that American voters are easy, what is being said is that their voting favors are easy to win.

There are a variety of reasons why American voters are easy. One reason is that we have, for as long as I have been alive which goes back to the Eisenhower Presidency and that preceded the 9/11 attacks,  a lazy, bipolar Democracy. BTW, I actually had to confirm the timing of Eisenhower's Presidency to a high school kid when we were discussing history.

By lazy, I mean that we take relatively little to no both time and effort in deciding for whom to vote. For too many of us, our party affiliation determines how we vote. For too many of the rest of Americans, political commercials settle our decisions.

I use the word 'bipolar' because of our two-party system that consists of the Repubican and Democratic parties. Both of those parties hate third party competition from their respective share of voters from the conservative-liberal divide in our nation. Each of those parties has worked to suppress the exposure of names of third party candidates on the election ballots. And so for almost 100% of the time, the behaviors of the major political parties  during the elections fixes the election. In addition, either party loyaty or fear/hatred of the opposing party keeps us voting for either Democrat or Republican candidates. In addition, the viability of a third candidate also keeps us corralled into the Republican or Democratic herd.

But what about "independent voters"? Here, we should also focus on the laziness of American voters. Certainly, our two-party system makes our voting choices easy to make. And so it makes us lazy voters. Lazy voters are easy voters. And so, again, what about the independent voters? Have they escaped the laziness of other voters?

The answer is a firm 'NO!' They might be a bit less lazy than our counterparts who are too loyal to their respective parties. but they are not off the hook. Why is that the case? For most independent voters, their laziness has to do with the kind of society we have.

There are two factors that drive our society that can cause voters to be lazy. The first factor is that we have a consumer society. And in a consumer society, the tendency is for people to find a large part of their personal significance in what and how much we consume. Our consumerism not only dulls our concerns for higher values, it bestows on us a political Attention Deficit Disorder so that we don't have the patience or interest to weigh through the details of the tradeoffs that each candidate brings to the table. Those previously mentioned higher values incluse human rights, a non-toxic environment, a good education system especially for low income neighborhoods, law enforcement and the justice systems, and an economic system that, tragically,  currently revolves around shareholders. That reductionism eliminates other stakeholders of our economic system from consideration like the environment, respect and adequate compensation for all employees both foreign and domestic, consumers, neighborhoods and even educational institutions. 

Now add to that the role that advertising plays in our purchases. Advertising relies on selling a statu, that possession of a product can bring, or it relies on a single benefits that owning a given product brings. What we will never hear from any political advertisements are the tradeoffs that come with the selection of any candidate. And so our political advertisements mirror our product advertisements in that they rely on, using a Rush Limbaugh phrase, symbolism over substance.

Think of many of the car advertisements we are shown. They often focus both on the looks of a car and the image it projects more than on any other quality. Think of how our food is advertised. Restaurants focus on the taste of the food so that its nutritional provision and its safety in terms of preparation and added contents are overlooked. And what about the advertisements for clothes? Advertisements of focus on the status that wearing such clothes will bring and neglect to inform us about the plight of those who actually make the clothes.

Now think about how our political candidates are advertised in their commercials. Again, it's all about image. When political issues are included, they are greatly reduced to perhaps  one or two positions so that the potential of a given candidate is based on overly simplistic thinking. Candidates must project a strong, patriotic image who will help return America to a place of strength and leadership while reducing taxes and normal costs.  

But what makes our nation strong? Is it military capabilities or dominating others? Also, what is the price of reduced taxes if such reductions require that our national debt continues to spike so that it can cause our economy to collapse?

Like the claims made by the advertisements for the products we buy, the tradeoffs of the suggestions of the advertisements are not in sight. And the same goes for obeying the political campaign advertisements.

BTW, what are tradeoffs? A tradeoff includes the costs and benefits of any choice we make. For example, I am told that while I might enjoy the taste of the food and the speed at which fast food is delivered, there are costs. The fast food might have unnecesary ingredients that improve the appearance and taste of the food while toxically prolonging food storage. And its preparation might be harmful to my health, especially in the long-run. Such food might also not be as nutritious as I have been led to believe. Or so I have been told.

Because we have been consumed with consuming and advertising has been designed to kill our curiosity, we tend to put little effort into discovering the tradeoffs that come with electing the candidates we are favoring. 

Take the 2024 election of Donald Trump as an example. We had already seen, first-hand, how his first administration left the nation in utter chaos. And that state existed before the January 6th attempted coup. But because the Repubs painted such a negative image of Biden and Harris while strongly promoting Trump's abilities and positions, too many of us fell for the Republican claims for Trump hook, line, and sinker. 

For the most part, American voters are easy. And because of that, we have Trump as President and a worsening of the candidates we choose from in our elections. The old line, 'you get what you pay for,' applies here. That is because the quality of our candidates corresponds not with money, but with disruption, patience, research, anxiety, reflecting, and investigating the candidates and the issues before we vote. Though right now, not voting for Trump seems like the best alternative, perhaps some day in the future, neither of our two political parties will be way off the rails like today's Republican Party. And should that time occur, it would serve us well to consider voting for third party candidates as much as we feel comfortable with voting for candidates from our nation's two major political parties.