We will hear the loud and incessant barking of ‘attack ads’ very soon as the fight between Clinton and Obama remains close (despite the nearing Democratic Party convention) and as we approach the inevitable battle between the Republicans and Democrats for the Presidency.
But this is not what motivates me to speak up. What does motivate me is what bothers me – and that is the likely manipulation of Asian Pacific Islander (API) and Filipino American voters as these ‘attack ads’ run with far more frequency between now and November.
Absent fact-checkers, especially for API and Filipino American communities whose ethnic media cannot mount the needed resources to unpack the truthfulness of the ‘attack ads’ to come, voters will be manipulated, indeed. APIs make-up a wedge community, after all: simultaneously critical and dispensable.
‘Attack ads’ manipulate – they twist issues and redirect public attention — because that is what they are designed to do. And the players of the political campaign game do not police themselves because doing so brings little incentive: candidates attack their opponents to sway voters in order to win the election, the media air ‘attack ads’ then write about them in order to sell news, and, finally, interest groups condemn them in order to rally their base and grow in power.
All stakeholders in the political campaign game are complicit because as they behave rationally in the political campaign game, inadvertently or not, they promote and consummate the dirty process of voter manipulation.
We all have a responsibility to defend against the voter manipulation to come. Manipulating voters erodes the principles of democracy for it cheapens the vote and inherent in a manipulated vote is a naked attack on voter independence. For what is democracy if its citizens are not independent voters and a government does not derive its powers from its free-thinking citizens but in spite of them?
So what are API and Filipino American bloggers to do? For one thing, blog the fact-check and invite our communities to think critically.
Racist america.Here’s my out-take- first it’s clinton nor obama who will be in the WHITE house key word WHITE. Reason being america. Good ole u s a. We are almost there but not quite I think they’re not ready for a woman nor an african american in the white house.
Regardless on how bush f__’ things up for the republicans it doesn’t compare to WHAT or better yet WHERE we are as a nation.reason being
1) mc cain has already won the right to represent the republicans.hands down won it by a land slide.
2nd every day the democrats bash each other and exploit all their flaws saves mc cain the trouble.
3rd simple mathematics mc cain gots about 72 percent of the donkey votes aka republicans now the democrats its been stat proven that 35 percent of the obama and vice versa hillary voters won’t support each other so they’re either going to vote republic or not at all. and the rest will either vote for the democrat or be so discouraged due to the negativity that both obama and hill are puttn on each other.
Which brings me back to racist america and my 1 point. Even if all the minorities in florida, ny, cal, arizona voted for a woman or african american we still have all the rest of the states; the hard core south will rise and vote mc cain.
there can be 4 million votes for either one but say utah.population 800,000 vote mc cain now you’re tied 1 state a pc. Don’t get me wrong, we’re close- about four years away for the change of all changes. But that’s the problem its not just a change. bush out,republicans blew it, get a democrat in. its more, its a change in presidential history 1st woman or black president. Just what I’ve seen.
final thought if it was really up to american people to put the elected president in office then why is bush still in charge! votes showed gore had more people votes but not more states and we know the rest.well, see u in nov and I’ll be here responding “I told you sooooooooo!”.
Posted by whymyvotedoesn'tcount | April 23, 2008, 5:03 amWhoa! Easy … First of all, I feel ya. Really do.
Anger against racism is good for it changes your consciousness, but don’t let it consume you … been there. My advice: Channel your anger into something creative, positive so that you can generate personal power to combat racism. Voting is one positive personal act; getting others (friends, family) to vote with you is another.
Racism is inexcusable. No amount of reason exists to excuse it. Our entire lineage — the Kayumanggi race — knows the ills of racism first hand from the Spaniards, Japanese and Americans. The loss of our culture and the great effort that young Filipinos now make to reclaim it is one result that I’m sure has personal resonance to each of us.
Like other colonized people, the Filipino identity is unidentified, unspecified for having been obliterated by the violence of multiple bouts of colonization. While identity is fluid and not fixed, and therefore we should not expect to ever achieve ‘pure’ culture, the Filipino cultural starting point is sketchy, blurry and elusive — a challenging foundation to build on, especially if only a few of us commit to uncovering it and defining its contours.
We should all do our part to reclaim the buried facts of our past, and not leave it to the few historians to do it. Engaging in conversation is the first step.
Posted by rbvergara | April 24, 2008, 5:09 pmOne more thing to whymyvotedoesn’tcount, if we don’t vote this year because of how we feel toward our individual or collective treatment, then THEY (the ‘system’, the mainstream, the Right-Wing, the White man) win.
They win because they succeed in silencing you from giving them a piece of your mind when that pieve of your mind actually matters to them. Election day is one of the only times when individual voice truly matters. Don’t let them off the hook on election day by not showin up.
Don’t let them win yet another victory over you.
Your weapon is your vote.
Posted by rbvergara | April 24, 2008, 10:49 pm