Soundbite politics

The 2004 election demonstrated the success of Bush's soundbite politics.

Soundbite politics refers to the way that politicians use simple soundbites, or slogans to achieve hidden political goals. It bypasses necessary political discussions and reduces complex issues to simple bloack-or-white, right-ot-wrong determination. As you can see, soundbite politics is anti-intellectual, and undermines the very foundation of a democratic society.

Let me give you an example. When talking about tax policy, Bush's favorite soundbite is "it's your money". He uses this to gain support for his tax-cut policy. This soundbite has strong appeal. Indeed, it is our money. So tax cut is always a good thing. The reality is more complex than that. But who cares to listen to the complicated discussion about issues these days. Like our President often says: "I am a simple man. I want to follow simple logics."

Another Bush's favorite is "the terrorists hate freedom and democracy". Here again a complicated issue to reduced to barebone simplicity. Terrorists are evil. They hate us, and our way of life. Simple as that. End of debate. All those who oppose to us are siding with the evil terrorists. You are either with us or against us. Are you with Sadam and Osama, or with US? Take your stand. How can you criticize us when we are fighting the terrorists?

Perhaps the most harmful soundbite politics is "government is bad. Regulation is bad." Privatization and deregulation are the solution to all the problems in our government and society. This is a view that underlyes the principle of Bush's policy. Under Bush, many critical government functions (even in the military) are outsourced to private sectors. As we can see from the examples of Enron, Worldcom, AIG, and many more, private enterprises are not free of problems, either.

It is not just Bush that subscribes to soundbite politics. In fact, the conservative voices in our society all use it. If you have watched the O'Reilly show recently, you would know that show is the "mother" of all soundbite politics.

For the good of our democracy, let's put a stop on soundbite politics.