Here's a personal question for you: How superficial are you when it comes to voting?
For many of you, the first reaction might be, "I’m nothing like that! I’m very informed on all the issues and I base my decision on who to vote for off a candidate's policies!" And while that may be true for some of you, for the rest of us, that’s sadly not the case.
American politics are in bad shape, and for a long time, the popular consensus has been to blame whoever is currently sporting the presidential nameplate on his desk. But is it entirely the fault of one man? Maybe it's time to blame the voters: They’re the ones who elected the president, after all.
Voters today are emphasizing the wrong details when it comes to deciding which political candidate to support for the presidency. Voters in this pivotal election should recognize that the election results should be determined by the candidate’s knowledge of the issues and their proposed policies, not their personalities. It’s really the case of policy vs. appearance, where appearance seems to stand on a pedestal that casts a major shadow over the importance of the issues being discussed.
Too many voters only start paying attention to the election once the candidates for each party are chosen and the options are narrowed down to two major candidates, prompting voters to play the “choosing the lesser of two evils” game.
For the past two months, we have seen President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney repeatedly attack one another over the airwaves about the other’s inability to lead America out of the current crisis that envelops it. And yet for all the speeches and campaign ads that outline their proposed initiatives to better our nation, both Obama and Romney are being constantly evaluated by American voters on a scale that is based only on degrees of superficiality. How well a presidential candidate can “walk the walk” and “talk the talk” is now seemingly more important to the American public than the qualifications and beliefs of the man running for office itself.
By making these assessments, we aren’t implying that party loyalty or political ideology is insignificant. The point is that a candidate’s appearance and personality is now just as likely to alienate voters as their political policies would.
One reason personality has become such an important component of this election is media coverage, which has focused on the candidates’ personalities and campaign blunders almost as much as the policies themselves.
In an article in Time Magazine entitled, “The Temperament Factor: Who’s Best Suited to the Job,” columnist Nancy Gibbs wrote that “The presidency is less an office than a performance.”
A 2011 study conducted by professors at MIT published in the American Journal of Political Science examined the extent to which a candidate’s appearance impacts his or her popularity with voters. Their findings indicated that, “candidate appearance matters more when less informed voters watch a good deal of television.” Less politically informed voters are 10 percent more likely to judge a candidate’s abilities on his or her looks while voters with higher rates of media consumption are 32 percent more likely to judge a candidate based on their appearance.
In a culture that has been enslaved by the mass media, personality has been thrown into the political spotlight, and while it does not necessarily outshine the issues, it has become inextricably tied to them.
But there is hope for America's voters to become a more educated, informed citizenry. We hope you challenge yourself this year, to really listen to what the candidates are saying, instead of being distracted by how they behave on camera. Just because someone looks presidential doesn't mean they'd make a good president.
Abandon your superficial tendencies and try to take a deeper look at the issues. We as Americans have been granted an amazing opportunity to elect our own leaders, but we don't put much time or effort into doing so (some of us don't put any at all). Generally speaking, the American people tend to rely on much more superficial approaches to select their preferred candidate.
Whether it be the color of Michelle Obama's nails during her speech at the Democratic National Convention, or Joe Biden’s televised gaffes, the number of times Paul Ryan mentions God in his campaign speeches, or the amount of money Romney has in offshore accounts in foreign countries, the point remains the same: these are not the pivotal details that determine a candidate’s qualifications for the presidency. And yet, thousands of people will undoubtedly let these insignificant details alter their decision of who to vote for.
The American voter has to take responsibility. We are given what we demand, and what we create in today’s political climate ends up defining us for the next four years.
Because in the end, your vote will not necessarily reflect who will become the next President, governor, senator, or representative, but it will reflect the values you choose, the information you demand, and the country you hope to create.