American Idol TV Show More Popular Than the Voting Polls

 

With the 2022 midterm election just a week away, and with the polls indicating, well, your guess on that is as good as mine. It all depends on who is doing the poll and sometimes there is no real conclusion. The one person who is sure about the outcome of the November 8 election is documentary maker, Michael Moore...

"Left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore isn't backing off his predictions that Democrats will win big in the 2022 midterm elections, even as polls paint an increasingly dire situation for the party."

I did a blog post in May of 2008, fourteen years ago. At the time it was an attempt to compare the response of the American Idol TV show with the response to voters in American elections. Admittedly, it is a loose correlation, but one that shows the American public is more involved with its entertainment interests than it is with its civic interests. Here's my scenario...

In the 2004 Presidential election, 64 percent of the 197 million citizens age 18 and older (126 million) voted. But of the 72 percent that took the time to register (142 million), 89 percent indicated they voted. Big difference in those percentages, proving that to get out the vote, you have to get people to register first. Duh! Independents totaled 26 percent of the voting population; Democrats and Republicans were 37 percent each. So what’s the problem, you say? Looks like the apathetic way American voters have always approached their elections, and that, I tell you, is the problem.

 And now the comparison...

Here are the statistics to prove it [the apathy]. The 97.5 million Idol votes in 2008 were 23.5 million more (31.8%) than the 74 million in 2007, when another very popular contestant by the name of Jordin Sparks won. Now compare that with Presidential voting in 2000, where the turnout was 60 percent, only increasing to 64 percent in 2004, an increase of only 6.7 percent. Keep in mind that in both 2000 and 2004, there were critical issues at stake to this country, and concerned Americans should have rushed to the polls in droves. But they didn’t. So they ended up getting what they deserved.

I made the comment that Idol does provide release, and Presidential elections only

give us decisions to make that will determine how the country is run. And this, too, is another problem in the U.S. voting process. On what do we make our decisions? I know what I do but it is painfully obvious that much of the American public makes their decision based on what the media tells them to do. Otherwise, why would candidates spend millions of dollars advertising?

I Googled "stupid voters like sheep" and got over 2 billion results, which indicates to me the interest in this issue. One of the articles from Salon, "The sheep-like loyalty of Trump supporters is starting to backfire," states that Donald Trump thinks his voters are morons, which would be right considering who they voted for. Another says, "Sheep are smarter than voters,"  one more asks the key question, "Are American voters stupid?"

If you don't yet get the idea, the conclusion is that the American public harbors a drastically high number of apathetics who either don't give a crap who runs this country or they are too dumb or lazy to do their homework before voting. In case you haven't realized, losing your voice in determining who runs the U.S. government is the same thing as losing democracy. THINK ABOUT IT AND VOTE NOV. 8! 

Pres. Biden should be applauded, but...

It's all good news, according to Robert Reich, economist, professor and lawyer. So, why are Joe Biden's latest poll numbers so abysmal? Reich shows why the President should be commended...

"America is overflowing with good news. Unemployment is down, wages are up, consumer confidence is rebounding, and consumers are spending more (retail sales jumped 1.7% in October, the third monthly increase). Covid seems to be in retreat, at least among those who have been vaccinated. And two big parts of Biden’s legislative agenda – last spring’s $1.9tn American Rescue Plan, and his recent $1.2tn infrastructure plan – have been enacted."

These are accomplishments, folks, something we have become unused to in the prior administration of Donald Trump. The White House maniac spent his four years spreading hate and promoting white supremacy, lying, ignoring the Covid-19 pandemic, basically undermining anything to threaten America's democracy. This left Biden with a multitude of fires to put out. And it isn't easy to govern when the other party is determined to continue Trump's anti-democracy.

Biden's $1.2 Trillion Plan to Rebuild America...

Reich cites the President's low and recently plunging approval ratings, the latest at 41%, with most registered voters exclaiming, "if the midterm elections were today, they’d support the Republican candidate." On Friday the House passed the President's Build Back Better Bill, with the Senate not guaranteed but highly hoped for. All that said, at least some blame here: "Biden’s and the Democrat’s poor messaging." The economist calls it "awful," and I agree.

We never hear the end of Republican accomplishments on the Fox network, Newsmax and Breitbart, and there may lie one of the biggest problems with the left...they don't have similar media. At least that which is listened to regularly crowing over liberal achievements. CNN and MSNBC do a good job of reporting but not collectively the crowd pleasers the competition have. The famous liar, Tucker Carlson, is a good example of conservative followings.

I recognize, as most on the left do, that Carlson's audience, as are the other hosts on Fox, are populated with double-digit IQs, have to be to believe this drivel. Others think it is the media. Reich surmises...

"Even now most Americans have no idea what the “Build Back Better” package is. It sounds like infrastructure, but that bill has been enacted. “Human infrastructure” makes no sense to most people."

 It is hard to say if the latter is the fault of the Biden administration or the combined media. Regardless, it is a fact and, if Biden doesn't change this soon, his approval rating can only get worse. Finally, because of the higher education level of Democrats, they don't "really want major social change anyway." I call this group the apathetics, somewhat out of touch with reality. But Reich says most of the country was ready for the quiet mind of Biden to repair it all.

And, Pres. Biden has made a great start, but most don't know that...yet.

Did Facebook elect Donald Trump?

Typical Facebook 2016 Election ad

Headlines have proclaimed that thousands of ads were purchased by Russians, some posing as Americans, designed to elect Donald Trump in 2016. If the idea was to force the U.S. into chaos, then they accomplished their purpose. Facebook says they were actually purchased by the Kremlin and, even when considering 1st Amendment rights, it raises the question of whether or not this is considered an act of hostility against the American government. Of course, T-rump and his pathetic supporters would say no, it is just business as usual, in the good old Republican way.

Facebook even admits the ads were meant, "to sway public sentiment," and claims to be placing safeguards in place to prevent manipulation of future elections. But the question arises, is the American public so easily swayed, basically uninformed, so downright stupid that a Facebook ad could decide their vote? If so, this country has become a massive field of what I call apathetics, those who are completely out of tune, and really don't care. The most frightening side of the ads was their bent toward racism as well as to create unrest on gay rights and gun rights.

If Facebook did elect Donald Trump, we are in more trouble than we ever realized.

Not one iota of your life is private anymore

For years I labored as a privacy blogger to convince the public they should be concerned over the loss of their privacy. Protect your data, I would tell them, even going to the extent of suggesting individuals should own their personal information, companies having to get your permission to use it, paying you for the privilege. No one was interested and out of all this I coined the term, 'apathetics,' for the individuals who stood by indifferently, watching their private data collected in databases around the world.

I finally threw up my hands and said, 'If you don't give a shit, why should I,' and turned my interest to political blogging. I can assure you the time to protect your personal information is long past; given time, almost anyone can go to the Internet underground and buy your Social Security number for five bucks. I still refuse to give mine out just because of the principal of it. Now Google is talking about selling the future, "powered by your personal data." Facebook, because of the use of its users' private information is in trouble with the feds. I hate to say it, but I told you so.

71% of Americans have given up on stopping gun violence

The shocker isn't that 71% of Americans have given up on Gun violence but that they think it is now a permanent part of American life. I trust this group has never had a case where a family member was shot and killed by some lunatic with a handgun or assault weapon. I call these people apathetics, those who don't seem to care about things until it affects them. And then they scream the loudest for help or justice or whatever.

Apathetics are pathetic, and one of the reasons politics in the U.S. is in the state it is in. The idiots in Congress know that a large majority of the country doesn't give a shit, so they do as they damn please. Many of them probably don't vote, and if they did, it would probably be in an uninformed way. Many of these people are successful in everything from the business world to the arts. So what the hell is going on?

The millennial "me" generation rubbed off on the rest of us and apparently lurks within at least 71% of this nation, whether it is recognized or not. Me, me, me,me,me means that I don't have to really care if kids are slaughtered by a gunman at some school, unless, of course, it is the school where my kid goes. Like I said before, you are pathetic, and this country will continue in the direction it is going unless you change this attitude.