March 28, 2024

A Child’s View of Politics

Posted on March 29, 2016 by in EdNote

My earliest memory of a political campaign is the summer of 1956. I wasn’t old enough to cross the street yet, but the Republican and Democratic conventions that August wore the wax out of me, even at four-years-old. Like many of our neighbors in those early days of television, we had one, small black and white set, and my Mom did her best to support the fledgling industry by keeping the TV on much of the day and night. With regular programming preempted for convention coverage there was nothing else to watch. No Cisco Kid. No Superman. No Little Rascals. Just hours and hours of men standing in front of a podium.Talking, talking, talking. It was enough to make a kid go outside and play.

Fast forward to 1960 and the Kennedy-Nixon election. I was a mature woman of eight by now and knew the candidates and the process; after all, I’d been around this block before. My mind was long made up. I was a Kennedy supporter all the way… at least until Robert Dan, our neighbor and my elder by five years, sat me down and asked me the searing question of the day: Did I really want a Catholic to be our President? Hmm. Something to consider. Never mind I had no idea what a Catholic was; my steadfast faith had been shaken.

I sat the ’64 election out, realizing my support wasn’t properly valued. While my older brother’s high school class got out of school to attend a Goldwater rally at Cramton Bowl, the seventh grade wasn’t even invited. I’d have AuH2O’d with the best of ‘em to miss one day of junior high. Goldwater obviously needed better advisors.

My first real opportunity to participate in the political process came in a statewide race in 1966. A friend whose father had been involved in a myriad of Wallace campaigns asked me to help her hand out (Lurleen) Wallace bumper stickers. Even then I had a vague sense that working for a candidate should dovetail with candidate support. But it was my first chance to participate in the process. To be a part of The Show. The $20 I got for schlepping stickers only sweetened the deal.

A few years later, when I learned you could actually major in political science in college, I was ecstatic. All those years of personal research and informal training might finally pay off. Who knew?

For 30 years my professional career was that of a public tv producer whose work focused on political coverage. In those days my cohorts and I always thought that more coverage was better. Stump speeches? Let’s carry them. Candidate interviews? Book as many as possible. Debates? Bring ‘em on. We were convinced all these elements contributed to a more informed electorate.

But these days it’s not so clear to me anymore. More information doesn’t equate to more valuable or more enlightening, as we once thought. If the message isn’t broadened, or probing methods to elicit fresh information aren’t employed, there’s no new revelation that enlarges the political discourse. Despite the hours and hours of live campaign coverage, interviews, and debates, something is missing.

Talking, talking, talking. It’s enough to make a Yiayia and her grandkids go outside and play.

Sandra Polizos, Editor primeeditor@gmail.com

Sandra Polizos, Editor
primeeditor@gmail.com

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