ProgressOhio

Feel free to pass this on to those stubborn folks who think voting does not matter.

Leading up to this historic election, I've heard folks give lot's of reasons for sitting it out. The reasons range from old standards like "both parties are bought and sold" to my personal favorite "there isn't a dimes worth of difference between 'em". But in these times of economic depression and war without end, these folksy excuses just don't work anymore.

Voter apathy has been with us since our Republic was formed. Candidates and political scientists, pollsters and pundits have spent untold amounts of money and time attempting to explain it - and with good reason. Out of over 200 million eligible voters in America, just over half make the trip to the polls. The last two presidential elections have been decided by just over 50 million voters. Put another way, our national leadership is chosen by far less than 20 percent of the total population.

This statistic should concern everyone who believes that our freedoms are worth fighting - and dying - for. The current occupant of the Oval Office is quick to use the spread of democracy as a justification for attacking other sovereign countries. Yet the same man has not a word to say about the sorry state of our own democracy.

Everyone one us knows someone whether it be a friend, neighbor or a member of our own family who has a lot riding on the outcome of this election. Now here are some reasons why you - if not for yourself - should make that trip to polls.

We all know someone who needs access to affordable healthcare. Do you have a friend is unemployed or underemployed and struggling to make ends meet? Is your child's school under-funded and his or her teacher underpaid? Do you know a single parent struggling to pay for daycare while working two jobs?

What about your neighbor with a son or daughter doing a second, third or even fourth tour of duty in Iraq? What about veterans who have been denied the benefits they deserve?

Are you or a coworker facing the loss of a job because of outsourcing? Is your father or mother - after a lifetime of work - seeing their pension squandered by reckless corporate interests?

I could go on but you get the point.

The choice of staying home out of a misguided sense of rebellion or just plain apathy simply won't wash. If you truly believe that the sacrifices of generations past have been worth it, you will go to the polls. If you think that protecting our hard won freedoms is more than just an empty slogan, you will go to the polls. If you think we need to change this country, you will vote in November.

You have no more excuses.

and will the media have the guts to ask?

After a week of jingoistic ranting by the Republican Party, the balloons have popped and the show lights are dim. Speaker after speaker roused the delegates in St. Paul against a backdrop of patriotic imagery burning brightly on a giant screen. One such image stuck in my mind as a metaphor for all that has gone wrong over the last 8 years.

Congressman Lindsay Graham (R-SC) made a staunch declaration that America was winning the war on Iraq. Taken by itself, Graham's assertion is not surprising given the GOP's history of weaving dung into Egyptian cotton - then selling it as silk. While Graham was declaring mission accomplished, a photograph showed headstones at Arlington National Cemetery - a truly tragic juxtaposition.

Other images from the GOP Convention are less tragic, but no less disturbing.

The most disturbing image of all was that of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin claiming her Party's nomination as vice president. In a speech devoid of substance and long on folksy and dubious claims of her reform expertise, Gov. Palin did prove she could read from a teleprompter. This is no small feat given how she was thrust upon the national stage as a last minute replacement. Reports have surfaced that John McCain had his heart set on Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) but chose Palin after a single meeting.

Will Palin's speech, riddled as it was with half truths and some outright lies, be the basis of honest media scrutiny and assessment? Or will legitimate questions be lost in the haze of cotton candy fluff spun by the GOP? Beyond Gov. Palin's camera presence and GOP stagecraft lays the minefield of questions about her ideology and her knowledge of the world.

For the foreseeable future, Gov. Palin is safe in the cocoon that is Camp McCain, safely sequestered in a cone of indoctrination. Gov. Palin will hear a constant drone of policy facts and figures, accompanied by a heaping helping of quaint phrasing and plenty of the same revisionist history that punctuated the convention. Not until her handlers have deemed her ready, will Gov. Palin be allowed to face the news media - alone.

In the aftermath of all the bellicose rhetoric and national chauvinism, the corporate news media has been left in state of disorder and confusion. Torn between their responsibilities as journalists and fawning over the newest Republican shooting star, few substantive questions are being asked - or answered.

Ironically, the same McCain-friendly media on which the Maverick Mythology was built has now been declared the enemy by Camp McCain. Uber lobbyist and Camp McCain commandant Rick Davis has declared that the campaign will tightly control media access to Palin.

So just what does Gov. Palin know - and not know - about history and the current state of world affairs? There is no end to the list of issues, claims and inconsistencies to cover when it comes to vetting this vice presidential nominee. Will the titans of American journalism have the chance - or the guts - to ask the right questions and insist on getting the answers?

By her own admission, Gov. Palin knows little about Iraq. During an interview in March 2007, Gov. Palin was asked about the troop surge in Iraq. Her answer was stunning given that the war on Iraq has been dragging on for almost 6 years. Treating this tragic chapter in U.S. history like the World Series, Palin admitted that she had "been focused on state government" and "haven't focused on the war in Iraq".

Suddenly, in St. Paul, she knows about Iraq. With all of the "me first, country second fervor they could muster, Palin and the GOP have shamelessly exploited her son's upcoming deployment to Iraq. While I respect her son's decision to serve, I find it abhorrent that Gov. Palin chose to use the occasion as a political stage prop. Worse yet, having a son in the Iraq Theater of operations does not demonstrate a knowledge of the lies that were told in order to wage the war.

Nor does that fact alone prove that she understands the tragic consequences the war has wrought on the brave Americans who lay dead and wounded. Surely Gov. Palin has an opinion on the millions of Iraqis who been displaced or left homeless, not to mention the many thousands killed, injured and maimed.

In a complete refutation of the GOP's platform plank on climate change, Palin has played fast and lose with the facts. Like the Prince of the Dark Ages, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), Palin is oblivious to the crushing weight of scientific evidence and consensus. Like Inhofe, Palin denies human activity as a cause of global warming saying "a changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one though who would attribute it to being man-made."

Religious extremists have welcomed Palin into the fold for her position on creationism. Again denying science, Gov. Palin advocates the teaching of creationism as an alternative to evolution, couching her position in the fog of educational balance. On reproductive rights, Palin again panders to the Religious Right by asserting that women have the right to give birth, even if the father is the rapist who got them pregnant.

While Palin and the GOP have touted reform and fiscal responsibility as a central theme, her record as a self-described reformer and conservative is murky.

As a gubernatorial candidate, Palin actively supported the now-infamous Ketchikan "Bridge to Nowhere". As governor, Palin took credit for killing the project. In fact, the project died for lack of funding since Palin had redirected 80% of the allotted $398 million to other projects. Will the news media ask her why she opposed the bridge but kept the money anyway?

I hope that Gov. Palin will have to answer for why she reportedly left her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska nearly $20 million in debt. Surely the question of how she left 7,000 people with a per capita debt of $2,600 is relevant to her qualifications as a self-described fiscal conservative. Why did she feel it necessary to hire a lobbying firm in order to squeeze more earmarks out of Washington?

The list of questions is long and time is short. The future of legitimate journalism - and the country - hangs on the answers.

Copyright Michael O'Brien All Rights Reserved