Posted by
Barbara Hunter on Saturday, October 07, 2006 5:40:45 PM
Can You Recognize Mass Mesmerism?
by Barbara Hunter
It started about a year ago. Large portions of the mainstream press, who certainly did not have the welfare of Republicans in mind, began a steady whispering (and not so whispering) campaign that people of conservative bent should sit out this election if the available candidates failed to meet their standards for "purity." It might be worth noting that not once did they suggest that liberals should do the same if their candidates didn't measure up. Gradually, the whispering has become a drumbeat: Conservatives stay home! Don't vote unless your Republican candidates agree with one hundred percent of your views.
Pro-life? Rape or incest no excuse for abortion. Illegal immigration? Nothing but deportation of 11 million people will suffice. Wasteful earmarks? Forget that Democrats are guiltier and make sure you punish your Republican. And on and on.
This stay-home-on-Election-Day campaign needs to be recognized for what it is: a form of mass mesmerism that would substitute harmful decisions for common-sense ones. Note that the polls show Democrats ahead when questioning "likely voters." First tell conservatives not to vote, and then poll the rest. The only way the Congress will be turned over to the tax-hikers, fascist-apologizers, and America-haters is if enough Republicans can be convinced not to vote. The key to this destructive phenomenon on the part of the mainstream press, especially the television pundits, is making you believe that their thoughts are yours, that you are incapable of reasoning and making up your own mind, and that these suggestions should be made your own.
Face it: There are no "perfect" candidates, in or out of office. Voting is a necessary combination of least of two evils, plus most of two goods. Every Senator and every Congressman must at times compromise on one thing in order to gain another. This is not selling one's soul to the devil, it is doing the best under the circumstances of the moment. I have never found a perfect person to vote for in my 48 years of trips to the polls, and I don't expect it ever to happen.
Recognize this morally corrupt mass mesmerism for what it is, then go vote and select whoever is the best available at the moment.