What major newspapers like the New York Times call, the “presidential election cycle“ was once described by Noam Chomsky as the “quadrennial frenzy“. If the New York Times scores high on the scale of politeness, Chomsky wins the prize for directness and clarity. In his usual blunt and unequivocal manner, he has described well what has just begun in our nation: the “quadrennial frenzy”. No sooner had Hillary Clinton emerged as the major democratic contender, she is challenged by the corporate wonder from Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina. Well, actually Fiorina is the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, having been politely asked to leave after leading the company into a period of extremely poor performance. Still, her tenure at Hewlett-Packard should not be considered a negative point. If she almost succeeded in destroying a major corporation, she might be just the person to lead our country. In any case, she will be a challenge for Hillary who has her own set of problems.
As if Hillary Clinton didn’t have challenges enough explaining her own record, she must now look over her shoulder to see what Bernie Sanders is doing–or is it “Bernice Anders” as Sarah Palin has suggested? Should Sanders gain major support from progressive democrats, which seems very likely at this point, then Clinton must find some way to appeal to these progressives without offending too many of her wealthy friends on Wall Street. Add the rest of the pack–Cruz, Huckabee, Rubio etc.–to the mix, then turn the whole business over to the spin doctors of the propaganda/advertising industry, and there you have the “quadrennial frenzy”.
Having observed other such frenzies over the years, I have ascertained that there are three cardinal rules for winning a presidential election: propaganda, propaganda and propaganda. So it is to be expected that our candidates will inundate us during this “cycle” with both negative and positive propaganda. Translated into plain language, this means that we will never really know what the candidates actually think (with the possible exception of the independent from Vermont). Look what happened to Mitt Romney when he candidly expressed his disdain for the American public! Honesty is not something that a presidential candidate can afford. Therefore, my advice to concerned citizens of our nation is this: Take the campaign promises with a grain of salt and give more credence to the actual records of the candidates. Their factual records will tell you more about their future performance than the TV ads that are produced by their propaganda/advertising agents.
Jack E. Brush is a resident of The Villages.