The presidential election has officially come and gone, but the issues this country faces are still very much waiting for those headed to our nation’s capital. A nearly unanimous voice was echoed across victory rallies in America on the night of Nov. 6. Candidates were calling for compromise on behalf of the other party, calling for compromise within their own parties and calling for the service of the American electorate, yet these voices came and went, just a drop in the cultural bucket.
Voices from the media threw wrenches in the presidential race, and we need to start to untangle the issues the discourse created in order to move forward.
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh threw one of those wrenches when he called a Georgetown law student a slut. The New York Times reported in March that President Barack Obama later called the student to let her know he supported her.
As Laura Ingraham pointed out on Fox News, Obama did not call her to offer support after liberal media personality Ed Schultz called her a “right-wing slut.” Schultz, as reported by TVNewser, was suspended for one week in light of this comment following a previous attack on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whom he called a “cold-hearted, fat slob.”
We are a country in which the labeling of the Republican party as racist and sexist has become the cultural norm. We are also a country that now believes we have the assets to afford any modernity we desire.
Then in non-conservative media productions, opposition can be found to greedy points such as the American tax rate.
Antony Davies, a professor of economics at Duquesne University, pointed out in a video on LearnLiberty.org that to cover an annual deficit of $1.5 trillion, the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans would need to be taxed at 88 percent. Davies, who is also a research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, said that at that rate the average member of the wealthiest five percent would be making less than the average American.
We are a country with very serious issues, and as our politicians – both those new to D.C. and those returning – begin their work, we must hold members of the press accountable for the derisive tone they set. Those collective misgivings have influence on the American people’s ability to understand the issues facing our country, and the ability to come together to solve these issues. As a people, we need to find a way to overcome the political dialogues of campaign seasons. We need to hold the left as accountable for the barriers they present as we do the right. We need to understand the issues we face and address them as adults.