My Final Thoughts

In conclusion I find the state of our political system in this country to be in very bad shape. As it stands the two parties seem extremely polarized and the republicans seem to be having internal affairs that are compromising the strength of their own party. This honors project was interesting because I was able to dissect some of the most outrageous claims that the republicans, primarily their current front runner Donald Trump, suggested. My thoughts are about how scary things could be if he were to take office. I understand that we learned that when someone takes office they primarily seek to maintain the status quo as for them it is their career. But Donald Trump is not a career politician so in a worst case scenario he could impose a variety of radical executive orders that can unhinge the fabric of the nation. In all honesty that scares me because the world is already at the brink of another world war when you consider all the military activity that has been occurring from a multination front in response to the terrorist acts of ISIS. To listen to the very hateful remarks that the republicans use to degrade and condemn an entire religion is horrible. Edelman taught me that those behaviors are used in order for a politician to gain support through the creation of a political enemy in this case ISIS. The republicans seem to use a model of fear to rally support for their cause. It is also evident that with all the focus on ISIS many other important political topics have fallen off the radar of the media. Again this is another lesson I learned from Edelman as the media, politicians, and public shape the political truth of the moment. This project and more specifically this book have taught me never to trust the news or politicians at face value and to always question and seek the truth.

Creating Enemies from Nothing but Our Fears

This last video I wanted to retouch on because fear and political enemies are the reason Trump is doing so well in the polls currently and to me unfortunately could end up being America’s next President.  Edelman states “Because the evocation of a threatening enemy may win political support for its prospective targets, people construct enemies who renew their own commitment and mobilize allies” pg66. What I believe is happening with Trump is that he is actually scared as are most Americans when they think of ISIS, the refugees and a possible terrorist attack like 9/11. What I have come to notice and Edelman supports this as well is that when people are unsure of something or its new or they just don’t understand it mankind typically paints a target on it and labels it as evil.  Edelman goes on to say “Enemies are characterized by an inherent trait or set of traits that makes them evil, immoral, wrapped, or pathological and therefore a continuing threat regardless of what course of action they pursue” pg67. We especially in America fall victim to this. It is not just our politicians labeling all Muslim as terrorist we the citizens are as well. I believe this is all because our fears have gotten the best of us. We have created and enemy that otherwise wouldn’t have excited. 

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly Truth about Media and Politics

When looking at media and its role in our current presidential campaign. Edelman “Officials, interest groups, and critics anticipates the interpretations of particular audiences, shaping their acts and language so as to elicit a desired Response. The Audiences for news are the ultimate interpreters, paying attention to some stories, ignoring most, and fitting news account into a story plot that reflects their perspectives” pg95. But how does this affect people running for president or just any politician for that matter? Well here is how. The candidates have a campaign team on that team they have a few different key important people that effect the medias perspective and what the media portrays to it audience. There is the campaign manager everything goes through this person first, then there is the person actually in charge of the media releases, I highly doubt Trump is the one that is actually using Twitter and Facebook, has someone doing it for him. So this means anything we see no matter where it is at was designed for us specifically. It almost makes one think how messed up our system could really be but we are so blinded by the media that we have no way of telling the truth. Further evidence to support this is when Edelman “For any Audience, then an account is an interpretations of an interpretation” pg95. When I first read this I will be honest is really messed with my mind. It made me start going all conspiracy theory and that is never a good road to go down.  With how entwined most of America is with Social media the new like Fox and MSNBC. They are only showing us things we already believe and support. It is not allowing us to be fully educated on any one topic, but rather is only solidifying our basis ideologies. 

Trump, A leader and Our Future President!

I wanted to find a video that spoke about Donald Trump and other candidates about being leaders because it reminded me of a very powerful quote that I remember talking about in class. “Beliefs about success and failure are among the most arbitrary of political constructions and perhaps the least likely to be recognized as arbitrary.” Pg 43. It seems like everybody believes that Donald Trump is the most qualified leader to run the country. But what is it based on? Some people say it’s because he is a simple businessman and others say it’s because he speaks his mind and is not afraid to say what needs to be said. All that he is doing is spreading hatred around the country and the policies that he proposes are about as crazy as 1942 Nazi Germany. If the only things you need to do to become president is run a business that has repeatedly filed for bankruptcy and scream racist profanities at every convention you hold sure that is one way to be a leader. There is nothing that Donald Trump says that is backed by any form of democratic reason. His entire campaign seems to be driven on hatred and who he can point a finger at in order to get his followers angry. At first his attacks on ethnic groups seemed random but in light of all the terrorist activity he has exploited his hate on Muslims and unfortunately his racist and ignorant followers jump on his every whim like he is a genius. I wanted to include this quote from Edelman and feature Donald Trump’s campaign because I feel that it epitomized the quote because so many people who normally aren’t politically active are jumping on the Trump band wagon and using his leadership abilities as their reason for why he would make a good president.

Right Right Side of Wrong or The Wrong Side of Right?

Although this video was hard for me to watch as a person who supports pro-life I am not for defunding Planned Parenthood. But it’s not just about pro-life or pro-choice it is about the GOP and more specifically the GOP presidential candidates saying they will shut the government down like they did a few years back to stop government funding to Planned Parenthood. And although it is hard for me to keep my personal opinion out of this. I see a broader picture of how the GOP use abortion to simply get votes when it comes to their campaigns. Again something else I am not okay with. They use people’s ignorance, and their religious beliefs against them to get votes. The GOP knows people will vote for them simply on the fact that they are “Pro-Life”. Unfortunately people don’t know better and keep falling for the same trap and are throwing away their votes. Edelman states “A central theme of this analysis, then, is the diversity of meanings inherent in every social problem, stemming from the range of concerns of different groups, each eager to purse courses of action and call them solutions” What I think he is trying to say here is that politicians both Republican and Democrats alike, both see a problem but yet their solutions are completely different. Especially with we look at issues like abortion. I very specifically wanted to talk about this topic not abortion but Politicians using people beliefs against them, because not too long ago I was one of those people. When I was a very young child on a Christian TV channel I watched how an abortion was done. Not only was I taught that my religion said it was wrong but I saw it and it scared me for life. My father is also still one of these people who will vote no matter what or someone who is “pro-life” regardless of all of their other viewpoints. I had the same ideology as him and I know many other Christians who the same exact way. It is not right for politicians to use this to their advantage, rather they should educate the people on all the topics that they support.

Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself

“Those who fear enemies are likely to impute traits to them that make the dangerous” Edelman. Pg 66. When looking over the video from “The Young Turks” about trump and other republican’s ideology on Muslims, this quote from Edelman think was written for specific instance just like the one they are discussing. In the video the two host discuss how Trump wants mandatory badges on Muslims. Many people are comparing this to Hitler with the Jews. Unfortunately it’s not just Trump that believes this or has the same ideology. They talk about how a women on social media who is a republican said that it’s not that we shouldn’t allow Syrian refugees in American, but if we do we need camps to keep them segregated and centralized. Now to look further into Edelman’s quote and put it into context a little better. What Edelman is trying to say in the quote is that when people are afraid of their “enemies” that that those same people are projecting their fears onto a group of people, only because they are different. Now by no means am I saying that ISIS doesn’t exist and that everything is rainbows and butterflies. However what I am saying is that now this is just my opinion. That the host of this video were completely right. Trump is sounding a bit fascist and more and more like Hitler with every speech he gives. What seems to be even more unfortunate is that his follower are so quick to agree with him without seeing the bigger picture. We cannot as a society lump all people from the Middle East as the “bad guys”. They are not all terrorist. To believe that they are is simply ignorant! We are creating a monster to be worse that it truly is. 

Introduction

I started this blog to present an honors project for my Public Service Ethics class. I chose to take the advice of my professor and write about something that makes me angry. This blog is going to be about the current presidential race and my focus will be on the topic that has upset me most over the course of the candidates’ campaigns, the GOP our lovely (sarcasm) republicans, more specifically Donald Trump and his antics. I haven’t always been interested in politics but I can safely say that because of the degree I am taking and the friends I have made here at ASU that my interest in politics has sparked. I found that although I was raised republican that I myself am liberal when it comes to most topics and as a result I have registered to vote without a party affiliation. As my political awareness has grown I have questioned most of the ideologies I was taught to believe because as I’ve become more educated they have proven to just not be true. This honors project gave me an opportunity to further my political awakening through a book titled Constructing the Political Spectacle which looks at how the things we think and believe to be true about our political system, the ideologies we value, who we believe to be good or bad, and so much more is all carefully fabricated mostly by the media but also the affiliations that we make and the people working behind the scenes for the politicians and their parties. I used this blog to express the harm that I feel the GOP candidates especially Trump can do to the country because of how outrageous their policies claims are.