Elections are a narrative, Jack

Elections are about narrative; as such, money and partisan reporting are vital to shape a story line that moves a majority of voters.

June 14, 2012, 9:00 pm  The Clown and the Cop  By TIMOTHY EGAN  New York Times

Father’s Day, 2012. 

 

Twenty-nine years without my father Jack.   

And as I follow my Sunday morning routine, listening to the mainstream Sunday morning programs & reading the New York Times, I wonder.

What would Jack think?

About the electoral rhetoric, about a man of color in the White House, about Republicans ruling Texas, about the onslaught on a woman’s right to control her body & her reproductive options.  About how tall my sons are.  About how beautiful are my nieces.  About how my nephew wants to be a Navy Seal.  About how trapped my mother is in her wheel chair.

What would Jack think?

I wonder what Jack would say if I began a conversation with:  

Elections are about who tells the better, more welcome, story.  Elections are about narrative.

Would he throw a plate across the room as he did when I told him I was going to vote for George McGovern in 1972?

Or would he listen.  I know he is listening now.

Because Timothy Egan’s blog in the New York Times this morning is correct:  elections are about narrative.

Elections are all about who is the better writer.  Or hires the better writer.

Elections are all about how well each writer identifies, perceives and understands the target audience.  

Elections are about language.  And images & manipulation.

My life-long love affair with words & text & textuality  aside,  I am not certain that elections should be decided on the basis of the best story teller.

Unless, of course, the story tellers are brave & honest & fearless.

I  wonder what Jack would say . . .