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Is anybody else disgusted by the way that some of the presidential campaigns are being run? Obama and McCain have both built campaigns based on brand recognition: slogans and logos. Whether the slogan be "change", or "country first", a moment's reflection reveals the vacuousness of the whole affair. Who among us doesn't claim these values? It is merely an effort to frame our thinking, to save us from the trouble of thinking for ourselves. Then there are the logos. Obama is better at this. He has the "O" with the red and white stripes at the bottom. McCain just has the star and stripe. Since we are conditioned to be good consumers, these candidates have decided to spend their hundreds of millions of advertising dollars on getting people to memorize slogans and logos, to recognize the newest, freshest, political "product".
God help us if we vote based on such superficial considerations.
There are campaigns that make a point of talking about issues in a meaningful way. These are the emerging-party or independent campaigns of (in alphabetical order) Chuck Baldwin, Bob Barr, Cynthia McKinney, and Ralph Nader. If you haven't checked out their websites yet, you aren't ready to vote.
