A Common Misinterpretation

I, for one, am tired of the media trying to hype this election up to be "the most important in of our generation." Let's be realistic, this election is just as meaningless as the others that have preceded it, dating back to the Vietnam war. In fact, it may be notable as the election in which there was essentially no difference between the candidates. Regardless of their beliefs on what should have been done initially in Iraq, both candidates see the training of more Iraqi citizens as the best means of escaping the situation, both candidates endorse large spending budgets, health care reform, and other simple platform policies. The only differences they have been able to make clear to the public stem from their ideologies in foreign relations and their personal characters, as Kerry is portrayed as a "flip-flopper" and Bush as an idiot. The truth of the matter is that regardless of which candidate gets elected this November, life for us middle class Americans is not going to change in any significant way. The tax breaks that are so frequently discussed are those aimed at the wealthiest, indicating no real difference for the middle class of Americans. Perhaps the reason we continue to believe that we will be influenced by this election is our belief that we are much more prosperous than our circumstances indicate. In a 2000 Time poll, 19 percent of Americans said that they believed themselves to be in the top 1 percent of wage-earners. While this is not necessarily a terrible thing, it is a shame that we can be so easily drawn into campaign issues that are essentially non-issues to us as citizens. Rather than force the candidates to appeal to the majority of Americans based on interests, we let them interpret for us what is important to America today. On issues that will affect our daily lives, there seems to be no substantial difference between Bush and Kerry, and that is why this will not be the most important election in our generation.