American Blog

Written by Michael Vass

Before it could begin it’s over. Can you imagine that? Yes the bid by Stephen Colbert to become the next President of the United States has ended. Not that Mr. Colbert expected to win, he had simply hoped for a double loss (he was running under both political parties in South Carolina) and perhaps 1 delegate. But now he has neither option.

Why? Because he was turned away.

After polls stated that Mr. Colbert could garner 41% of the vote depending on who was running, and massive attention for a minor political personality, the Democratic Party refunded his application fee and said ‘no thank you.’ But were they right?

I stated

“I thought about it, and the fact is that far too many Americans garner some aspect of their political news from the work of Mr. Colbert and Mr. Jon Stewart. Thus I will cover Mr. Colbert, and his bid to be on the South Carolina ballot.”

The South Carolina Democratic Party stated

“He’s really trying to use South Carolina Democrats as suckers so he can further a comedy routine,” said Waring Howe, a member of the executive council. And Colbert “serves to detract from the serious candidates on the ballot.”

Now I must ask, how serious is the debate really?

As I have mentione previously, Senator Clinton is using gender to garner cheap votes while avoiding answering important questions. Major issues affecting some other candidates have included the cost of haircuts, whether the candidate smokes, and the color of clothing they choose to wear. Do any of these items sound serious?

I would even step farther and say what have been the ratings of the CNN debates to date? I would bet that Mr. Colbert regularly has a greater following than most of the debates to date. Based on television ratings the importance of Mr. Colbert, Mr. Jon Stewart, Mr. Bill O’Reilly and many other pundits and commentators dwarf the debates to date, implying greater importance in the daily lives of many Americans.

Was this serious? No. But it is a statement, that now will not be heard. It is the fact that Presidential politics have devolved into a display of posturing showmanship more akin to the Miss America paegent than serious political debate. For nearly a year Republican and Democratic hopefuls have been debating and speaking about their reason why they deserve to be President in 2008. And to date, many, if not most, Americans have no idea where they stand on most issues.

For all the repeated questions heard over and over again in debates, policies on taxes are still not clear. Nor socialized healthcare, Iraq, Iran and immigration. Yes we have a general understanding of political party stances, but what about the candidates themselves? Not as much. To paraphrase Mr. Colbert, ‘it’s just truthiness.’

So considering that, why can’t Mr. Colbert make perhaps the ultimate social commentary by running for President. The absurdity of such an act highlights the absurdity of what the elections have become. There is little difference today in the run for primaries than the release of a new summer movie. But perhaps that is the fear.

Perhaps the understanding is that someone who has built a career on half-truth, gut-based-honesty, and blatant disinformation is too close to the reality of modern politics. The parody is too close to the factual. Imagine Mr. Colbert on a stage debating the candidates, his answers would not be any less clear or direct than what we get now. In fact he might sound better.

So I am at a bit of a loss seeing Mr. Colbert out of the race. The slap in the face he could have provided is needed. But now we just get the truthiness of people that are supposedly trying to be serious and laughter at that is just painful.