Get the Point!
By Chuck Hobbs
Last night, one of my friends forwarded me a clip from X (Twitter) of a voter discussing why she was supporting Donald Trump for President in 2024. The voter first said that Trump was still the president from her point of view—before changing to say that Joe Biden may be in the White House, but that he is actually serving Barack Obama’s third term. When the reporter asked how Biden or Obama could be president if she believed that Trump was still the president, the woman giggled and had no logical reply.
I laughed…and laughed heartily!
But my hearty laughter was really a gallows humor outburst because this voter, like far too many Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and minor party members, is woefully uninformed.
Who is to blame?
Well, one could certainly blame the fact that the newspaper industry isn’t what it used to be! According to the Pew Research Center, the estimated total U.S. daily newspaper circulation (print and digital combined) in 2022 was 20.9 million for both weekday and Sunday—a figure that was down 10 percent from 2021.
One could also blame the emergence of niche news channels and podcasts that focus more on news “entertainment” in short bursts to satiate an oft indifferent viewing public. This stands in stark contrast to my youth when there was CBS News with Walter Cronkite/Dan Rather, ABC News with Max Robinson/Peter Jennings, and NBC News with Tom Brokaw providing hard news reporting each and every evening without a bunch of focus panels and anchors proffering opinions.
As an op/ed writer, I don’t mean to besmirch that part of the trade, but unlike some of my colleagues, whenever I opine, I ALWAYS render opinions based upon objective facts—not fiction! You will never, ever see me exclaim that the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor (the Japanese did it), or that 2 + 2 = 5—because objective facts matter!
Sadly, in the modern era, when it comes to the cyber public square, facts shift shapes according to whether they were provided by right wing or left wing media sources, thus, the poor Trump supporter’s sincere (and sincerely ignorant) belief that we are in Obama’s third term and Trump’s second at the same damned time!
Last, we can surely blame the diminished significance of Civics classes in America’s classrooms over the past several decades as being a key culprit. Now, Civics was mandatory as recent as my high school days, but some education “experts” decided to make such courses optional (or obsolete) in the 1990’s as the same pushed STEM education often at the expense of liberal arts classes.
Well, right here in Florida, while I am often at odds with a great deal of right wing legislation and public policy hailing from this now reddest of red states, the conservatives actually got Florida Administrative Code Rule 6A-1.09411 right in that it mandates Civics, once more, including the mission to, “Understand the United States Constitution, Bill of Rights, and other amendments in their historical context.”
Now, we’re talking!
While future generations of Floridians should be better informed based upon my own review of the curriculum, in the interim, what happens to all of those citizens across America who are endowed with a voter’s registration card, but have empty minds that are easily filled with false facts spewed by highly opinionated dilettantes?
Well, the answer is that those of us who see the political and economic status quo and dare to dream of change must use our voices, especially on social media, to advocate true reform! Among the areas that we MUST fix include lessening the influence of money in politics; shortening these overly long election cycles; creating real transparency and accountability by local, state, federal, and judicial officials; and finally, eliminating the Electoral College—a system that may have made sense to the wealthy Founding Fathers who didn’t want to share power with poor white men, white women, or free Blacks—but makes no sense at all in an era in which one person, one vote, should be the goal!
Lest we forget!
© 2024 Chuck Hobbs 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104
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