P O L I T I C A L    R H E T O R I C
How to Analyze Election Rhetoric

"Politics is boring."


Or, more precisely: "Politics bores me."

Politics often involves complex issues, demanding sustained coherent thinking, with no clear or easy solutions, and often compromises among various interests.

Some people are slow, not gifted. Some people with short attention spans simply condemn anything that isn't instantly clear or easy for them to understand.

These folks are easy pickings for demagogues, offering quick answers, simple solutions, or a strong leader ("a man on a white horse") to do their thinking.

Some people are absolutists, authoritarians, intolerant of the diversity within a free society, and have a simplistic bipolar (yes or no; one-way) mindset.

Democracy needs a lot of compromises (give and take, negotiations, sharing, "deals") and tolerance for others who may not be as perfect as we are.

While such self-righteousness and certitude may be emotionally comforting, they are not very democratic attitudes.

The best democracies will still have many, many people and groups unpleased.

Many people simply want things THEIR WAY ("If I can't get MY way, I won't play."); Or they live in a fantasy world, calling for impossible conditions: "If... (or) ...When there's a good candidate... then, I'll vote." Realists play the hand they're dealt. As the saying goes, you can "hold your nose" when you vote for "the lesser of two evils."

Some people are simply whiners ands complainers, slackers and scapegoaters, blaming others (i.e. vaguely -- the "Politicians"), and excusing their own apathy and ignorance with the alibi: "Politics is boring."

So it goes.


"It is not all books that are as dull as their readers." - Henry David Thoreau
Complaints | Election Rhetoric | Home