Eng 3010 - Post 2

The way we communicated with one another, the words we use, the tone, and context make all the difference. When most of us read essays we feel bored and uninterested as often the writer fails to make any connection between the topic and ourselves, the audience. This is why I feel that the best way to communicate any message is to make it a conversation rather than a lecture.

Famous politicians like Al Gore utilized charts and graphs and facts to get their message across. However, often his speeches seemed like lectures rather than speeches and created dissonance between himself and the audience, the American people. Which is one major reason that experts attribute to George W. Bush's 2000 "win". Obviously, the American people don't want to hear about fact but rather be swayed by emotion, most notably fear.

Many Republican bloggers in the recent election have begun making attacks on Barack Obama by trying to accuse (I don't really like using the word accuse, it sounds harsh) him of being a muslim, and equating the religion of Islam to Sept. 11th and terrorism. Obviously, a false and diluted claim as there is nothing wrong being Muslim (But there is something wrong with being a right-winged narrow-minded hypocritical bigot, right Ms. Ann Coulter?) But this gained massive television coverage, mostly on Fox News, which is a joke in it's own right, but that's a post for another day. Nevertheless, it's these kind of attacks that hurt not only the Obama campaign but the view of American elections on the national stage.

Fear is becoming more important and influential than that of fact. Will the American people be able to think for themselves or give into the desperate members of the right (and some socialists, sorry liberals I tend to confuse them.)? Where do us members of the political center go?