Media, perception and public opinion

I am continuing to wait and watch with relish the wheels come off the Bush machine. But I am well aware that while it will be a hugely positive thing to get rid of the presidential disgrace, it is a stunningly dismal landscape we inhabit still. From the pathetic state of Congress, and the fragile economy, to the truly dispiriting mess we call American diplomacy.

I have done more this election cycle, especially contribute to the DNC, than my previous meager efforts, all the while being aware of the fact that the democratic party is hemmed in by bureaucracy and policy, particularly a right wing leaning foreign policy, which has drifted away from the potential greatness that could be America. So my hope is tempered with sadness.


Are Mr and Mrs America are waking up to the mean spirited jackass inhabiting the WH? Perhaps the debates revealed him in relief and somehow a more objective reality has cut through the fog -- people are perhaps more focused. I buy that, because I've thought the guy's a jerk forever but, lest we forget, most opinions are perceptions that are shaped by the media. If there is an interaction that somehow fairly modulates public percpetion and media interpretation I don't know about it. And I'm not about to believe it. The public is inattentive and apathetic. The media is a commercial venture foremost.Really I don't care about the defects in the system when it comes to getting rid of Bush. But the system and what it produces still sucks.