Channel-surfing last night, I happened upon Luke Russert, son of the recently deceased Tim Russert, discussing politics with Larry King, who was holding a “Rock the Vote” special. It was pretty astonishing to see his poise in the wake of the sudden death of his father, but I was soon taken with young Russert’s interesting (and politic) take on politics. He’s non-partisan—indeed, he’s an independent [e.a.]:
KING: Luke, why are you an independent?
RUSSERT: Well, I’m an independent because I believe it’s important to vote for politicians and not a party. I like to see what a politician’s going to do and what he says he’s going to do in Washington. Being here in the District of Columbia, we don’t vote for a governor or senator or congressional representatives. You pretty much vote for mayors, city council members and the president of the United States. And I just really like to wait on my vote until the last second to see what each politician has done, what they say they’re going to do, and what the media scrutiny reveals of each politician.
I think it’s very, very important to see how politician holds up to the questions the media asks. One of the things my dad always liked to say is, how are you going to make tough decisions as a commander in chief if you can’t answer tough questions from media. That’s why I’m an independent. I also think it’s kind of ridiculous how people in the United States, if they’re a member of the party, they don’t even listen to the other side of the issue; oh, the Democrats are voting this way, I agree with that; Republicans vote this way, I agree with that. I might be sounding a little Lou Dobbs, but that’s why I’m an independent in that sense.
Compare and contrast with the unappetizing spectacle I wrote about here. What a refreshing change.
1 comment so far ↓
No matter what candidate you pick you have to see him in terms of his party. If his party favors tax cuts or balancing the federal budget then you have to take that into consideration. Why? Because when we vote for these individuals we really don’t know them. Did anyone really know how bad Bush was in 2000? Did everyone realize what the consequences of voting him in a second time were going to be. No!
So our vote is cast in ignorance because average citizen doesn’t have the time or the interest to thoroughly research the candidate - he only knows what the media tells him and what he can gleam from the internet. And the average Joe doesn’t understand economics well enough to know what the consequences of tax cuts are in specific circumstances!
And people don’t vote for the best candidate or even get the best chance to vote for the best candidate. I like Obama but Biden and Clinton were obviously better prospects for the presidency than Mr. Obama. And Romney and Hagel would have been better than Mr. McCain. But Hagel was eliminated because he didn’t care to run and Romney got eliminated because he’s technically not a Christian, though probably a very fine man.
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