Indecision 2012. Why Campaigning is Stupid

You know what I could do with 5.3 billion dollars? Anything I damn well pleased is what. We hear billion and trillion dollars on the news so much I feel as though we've gained a numbness to the enormity of the number. Let the pictures and statistics refresh our memory.

Image from roundtree7.com

That picture shows you, in order, the size of a man, a thousand dollars, a million dollars and then a billion dollars divided into 100 million dollars crates. Mind you I didn't skimp and find pictures of 1 dollar bills. No sir these are the highest denominations of United States currency, the coveted 'benjamin'. Now that you grasped the enormity of a billion dollars add forty three more crates to that images and you have 5.3 billion dollars. 

Now being the Asian I am I want to do some math. According to the Social Security online website the average wage index for 2010 was right around forty two thousand a year. Lets say in 2012 the economy sky rocketed and that number jumped to 60 grand a year. And lets say the average size of a household is at 3 (Its currently around 2.6). Finally the life expectancy of an American according to the World Bank is 78.2 years. Now for the math, the family requires sixty thousand per year to live. Multiply that by 78.2 and you get 4.7 million dollars (roughly) for the parents to live out their lives with out working a day. Given that number approximately 1127 generations of that family could be supported with out having to work a single day of their lives. Assuming around 30 years gap per generation that comes out to enough to sustain the family for a good 33810 years. Without getting off their butts except to go shopping. Insane right? 

So whats my point? Five point three billion dollars is how much was spent on the 2008 campaign by Obama, McCain and all the various special interest groups according to Politico. Over 1 billion was spent in 2004 by Kerry and Bush and around 866 million by Bush and Gore in 2000 (Both of those stats from the F.E.C.). But its okay right? As these men were vying to be leaders of our great nation the money obviously, in some way shape or form, benefited American citizens right? No? That isn't what happened? How shocking. While obviously campaigning is not free the unregulated manner in which it is done is ridiculous. Candidates give speeches, travel expenses are expected (as a side note I had NO IDEA candidate was spelled can-did-ate I always thought it was can-id-ate. Praise the lord for spellcheck!) but what substance is behind these speeches? 

'See its voters like you who want to learn
about the issues that ruin my campaign!'

Most of the campaign speeches are vague generalities tailored to the simplistic minds of uneducated voters. Obama won 2008 by saying "Yes we can!" great, but he didn't close Guantanamo Bay, and he's been the biggest kick the pants of civil rights since the Patriot Act. Additionally Romney claims to have experience balancing budgets in Massachusetts and will balance America's budget the same way by cutting spending. I'm sorry what? Cut spending? Some one call the New York Times! Willard Romney (his real first name) has solved America's budget crisis in two words! All we needed to do was cut spending!

No.

Its clearly not that simple, yet Romney won't go into specifics because either he has no clue where he's going to take money out of, or he thinks his idea won't go well with the public because it won't work. Either way its not good. But the point I'm making is that these campaign speeches are so broad that they prove nothing and pamper to idiot voters who are too lazy eating fritos on the couch while watching the Biggest Loser hoping they will someday lose that weight. Okay that  may be an exaggeration but the point I'm making is most voters, myself included, aren't going to be doing much research on the issues independently in an unbiased manner and therefore don't really know who they're voting for. 

The biggest individual part of a campaign budget is television advertising. Campaign ads are ubiquitous on every major station and are usually just as substance-less if not worse than the speeches. They often are mud-flinging contests showing what dirt, real or not, the candidates can dig up on one another. Some of them maybe true but others are complete and unethical atrocities. Take for example Obama's infamous "You didn't build that speech." Romney takes something blatantly out of context and then attacks him for it. Here is part of the speech that puts everything in context:

Now lets look at what Romney did with this video:

Excuse me?! At the very least we can expect the candidates to play fair but clearly all they care about is winning. In case you didn't watch the video right after Obama says you didn't build that he says "the point is that we succeed because of individual initiative but also because we do things together." Its clear that Obama is in no way "demonizing" (term used in the Romney ad) small business owners for accomplishing what they did but simply saying that the government helped them by creating the system they can thrive in, for creating the roads they drive on for providing the fire and police services on call and such. All he is saying is working together is better for the country. I'ts this type of nonsense that can sway innocent voters into thinking Obama hates small business owners for no good reason and there isn't much he can do about it. We are seeing a common theme here, a ton of generalities, non specific crowd pleasing lines that sway voters but do nothing in terms of putting out their plans for the country. 

Given that I'm 16 I already can't vote but even if I could I wouldn't vote for either...I'd vote for...Ron Paul....or maybe Elmo. Who doesn't love Elmo? Probably has the same chance of winning as Ron Paul does as it is. Its sad how difficult and expensive it is to run for president. I don't recall George Washington, Abraham Lincoln or Thomas Jefferson ever spending a pretty penny to get elected. That's because they were great individuals with a proper vision for the country and the voters knew and could easily agree with their goals. Its quite possible the next Ronald Reagan or John F. Kennedy is lurking out there in congress or in some state as a governor or what have you, unable to run simply because they don't have 4 crates of 100 dollar bills. 

Seriously! You could buy 5 of these airplanes and
still have gas money left over!

As with my usual ramblings I have a solution. Earlier I posed the question of what could I do with 5.3 billion dollars, well lets tone it down and see what I can do for 1 million. That'll buy 27 thousand gallons of gas, 4000 one way plane tickets, 1667 weeks of rental car usage, heck it'll even give you 4-5 small used Cessna airplanes. That should be enough to cover travel expenses for a few months. But if there are no more campaign speeches or t.v ads then why are they travelling? Public debates, being the debater I am I truly adore this solution. Debating brings out positives and negatives of the topic. Everything is right there on the table, unlike in speeches when campaigners just cheer like fans at a Colts game (not last year but you know...back when they had Manning) at every mindless slogan the candidate says. Every week have a debate about some specific issue plaguing the country. Let the voters and the audience share questions with the moderators, let the voters get informed of the issues without all the muck in the middle. This creates a level playing at 0.000377% of the cost of 2008's campaign. Giving 1 million to each candidate for travel expenses and the like. With the rest of that money we can feed the hungry, create jobs, fund schools, give scholarships...or we could just keep making annoying and false television ads that get in the way of episodes of The Big Bang Theory or NBC's new comedy hit Go On. 

In essence I personally think there is too much garbage and yellow tape to go around in order to lead this country. Shouldn't being a solid leader be the one and only requirement? Agree, disagree or just love Elmo? Comment! And as always thanks for reading!