Eric Fesmire-General Topic #1

Political narratives are very important as we get closer and closer to election day. What we get day in and out from politicians are lines of reasoning and narratives that they want us to believe in order to get votes. It is difficult during this time to sort through the mess of narratives and get at the overarching narrative of America. Where is this country really going? Some say if you vote for so and so then America will completely collapse and get bought  by China or something just as bad. Others go for a less intense narrative saying that what we need is "factor x" whatever "factor x"  is (tax increase, tax decrease, less regulation, more regulation etc etc.) I wonder if long ago we lost the true nature of debate and discussion underneath the weight of buzz words and sound bytes. Language is important and what I see coming from modern politicians is almost an abuse of language, something less than human in both interaction and presentation. I don't really blame politicians however. Politicians are responding to the needs and wants of the people. We have set up this type of society and political culture to be based on attack ads and quick little gimmies. It will take an entire paradigm shift to see this changed and the pessimist in me is doubtful it will happen.