NORTH
COAST
T IM E S
PAGE 3
E A G L E , MA Y/JUNE 2005
THE SYMBOLIZING OF DEMOCRACY
742709100185
BY MATT WAISANEN
Nothing happens in America until it happens on
television. For the last several years, the media has gained
the power to shape American politics. Since obtaining this
power, the media has been a contributor to the decay of
democracy.
As a result of media campaigning, television has
replaced the political party organization as the link between
the voters and the candidates. Compounded with the problem
of media is the grossly high cost associated with campaigning.
Only the independently wealthy or party favorites can compete
for the nation’s highest office. In effect, public elections become
nothing more than a symbolic act under the misconception of
democracy.
The 1960 presidential debate John F. Kennedy and
Richard Nixon was the first nationally televised presidential
debate. This historic event marked the first time a candidate's
image on camera had an impact on the election outcome.
Kennedy had wrapped up campaigning in California and was
looking tan and healthy. Nixon on the other hand had been
recovering from a two-week hospitalization.Those who watched
this debate on television agreed that Kennedy had won while
those who listened to via radio broadcast placed Nixon as the
winner. JFK would later admit that, "It was TV more than any
thing else that turned the tide." The evidence of the media’s
influence in this election would change the future of political
campaigning.
Since the Kennedy/Nixon debate, political campaigning
has evolved into a televised event. People now rely on TV more
than any other source for political information. The media has
converged into a highly concentrated cartel of information
control. As of the year 2000, only six major corporations control
the majority of media outlets. As a result of media consolidation
and advertising costs, money now drives the election process.
The average cost of a Senate seat is $5 million. The combined
cost of the 2000 Presidential campaign aggrandized to over
$3 billion. When this kind of money becomes influential to an
election, the general public is not being well represented. Those
who get representation are the campaign financing donors. Of
all the campaign money raised in the 2000 Presidential elections
only 8.2% came from American taxpayers. The majority of this
money came from large individual donors and corporations and
P
A T R I O T IS
H
soft money’donations.This method of financing further divorces
constituents from their representatives.
The current lack of regulation on campaign financing
is a serious challenge to the integrity of democracy. The current
campaign financing system is an open invitation to corruption
and deviates the political agenda away from public interests. In
addition to the defilements of soft money, a candidate is allowed
to spend as much of his or her own money as they wish. The
Supreme Court decision on Buckley v Valeo held that the
“government could not limit individual's rights to spend money
on broadcasting views.” This also means that private individuals
can spend unlimited amounts of money in contrasting those
views. Negative ad campaigning is one result of this ruling. By
running attack ads, candidates become forced to take defensive
measures.The public then becomes overwhelmed by slanderous
propaganda instead of being able to develop a cohesive under
standing of a candidate’s views on real public issues.
The exorbitant cost of effective campaigning has
another degrading effect on democracy in that many otherwise
qualified third party candidates are unable to compete in the
current two party dominated oligarchy. If more than two parties
were contending for the vote, it would result in a much more
policy-driven campaign. The current system offers the public
limited choices and in effect further defines the election process
as being reduced to that of a symbolic nature.
In order to preserve the integrity of democracy, we must
have campaign finance reform. Campaign finance reform can
be fixed by instituting regulations and restrictions on campaign
funding. Better yet, we could pass legislation that requires public
financing of elections. If the public had to pay for elections out
of hard-earned tax dollars, perhaps more would be inclined to
participate in the democratic process. Media reform is another
area of concern. Equal access to media outlets and public
financing would ensure true representation by the public.
One way the individual can make a difference is to join
special interest groups that are focused on reforms. We can
also write to our representatives to express our concerns about
campaign costs and media control. Unless democratic reforms
in these two critical areas take place, we will continue to parti
cipate in imprudent elections of symbolic reassurance.
Matt Waisanen lives in Astoria but is going back home
to New Hampshire for a couple of years.
KIRK
NO TO PETROL!
BY DOUGLAS FURY
Gas consumption is among the primary roots of evil,
causing harm to all.The roots of petrol consumption are awash
in blood and death, such as in the Middle East. Less well known
examples are the operations of oil in Nigeria, with fortress style
refineries backed by military security forces (Remember Ken
Saro-wiwa!); and Texaco in South America, in the very head
waters of the Amazon.
Decades of Texaco drilling in the Ecuadorian Amazon
caused massive contamination of the sensitive wetland head
waters, impacting every living thing. During the years of primary
operation the main pipeline, built across known faultlines, spilled
16.8 million gallons of crude oil — one and a half times the
amount of the Exxon Valdez oil spill — into the pristine tropical
rainforests. Texaco forced labor from men of indigenous local
communities including the Cofan,Quichua, Secoya and Huaroni.
On record are photos of men covered in crude oil holding hemp
ropes that they were required to attach to stumps and logs sub
merged in open crude pits for their removal to facilitate drilling
rigs. The men were then “washed” with gasoline. Needful to say,
none survive long in such service. (And who has their paws in
ANWAR now?)
What about the mixing of alcohol related substances
with gasoline? Spillage and leakage is a massive problem at
every point of fuel handling. The normally hydrophobic qualities
of oily substances (which cause oil to float) are degraded by
mixing with alcohol. Petrol-alcohol fuel does not float but instead
forms a mixture with water. The result is massive groundwater
contamination by mixed fuel substances. The recent scurry by
government agencies and industry to protect themselves from
liability for MTBE damages to people, wildlife and the environ
ment illustrates the potency of this horror. All of these facts are
inextricably related to water.
When I look around at what is disastrously produced,
procured and profit-driven, it is clear that jingoism, nationalism
and ignorance are our greatest problems — but they have the
potential for improvement. When people can view high consum
ption as a subject for embarrassment rather than pride, when
siding with the Big Winner doesn't take the form of marching in
step with the current military/industrial flagwaving 'bomb ’em to
the stone age' shock & awe death machine, then maybe there
will be a chance. When being part of the collective source of the
most massive exercise of nuclear and biological weapon wield
ing death-dealing millennial military imperialism, torture, illegal
imprisonment, genocide and bombing is finally seen for what
It truly is: — Maybe it will become possible to divert the flood
of destruction by living to affirm all life, health and happiness.
As humans with voices, we bear the responsibility of
understanding the meaning of the message that is written in
blood by the voiceless — wildlife, salmon, trees and rivers.
We must join together to champion the cause of the very simple
foundation core-value, obvious and irrefutable truth for all who
live the protection of water resources.
Every political, military, religious, industrial, academic
action or exercise must be held up and examined by all to
determine the impact on water quality. Water shared by all living
things is actually synonymous with life. In Lakota dialects one
word: Mni = water, life, blood.
Cannon Beach, O regon
Douglas Fury is the nom de plume of a “born and raised
Oregonian” who lives somewhere on the North Coast.
CREA TEA DECLARA T/ON OF EQUALITY
§
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