The real issue is this: the disappearance of "terrorism" as the key frame for all of American politics has gone completely unnoticed by the American media. Instead of wondering where this important topic has gone--or wondering if it was ever really important to the Bush administration if they could drop it so suddenly--the media has shifted all of its resources to the Schiavo Affair.
Damsels in Distress...Again
On the night of September 10, 2001--as a dozen Al Qaeda operatives packed their bags for a trip that would change the course of history--the American public was glued to its TV set, obsessing over a young intern, whose sexual affair with a U.S. Congressman and subsequent disappearance from Washington, DC had dominated the media seemingly without end. Were it not for news of the Twin Towers being hit, the Chandry Levy Affair would have generated a media circus to rival even the chazerai surrounding Terry Schiavo. In the months that followed 9/11, however, the warnings and threats of terrorism framed every political issue and the Levy Affair vanished. But since George W. Bush's re-election, those terrorism warnings have become all but a distant memory, and the attention of the American public is once again adrift: in search of another focus, another frame, another damsel in distress.
Beyond the question of government intrusion into our private lives, the Schiavo Affair signals a return to a classic American obsession with "damsels in distress" on TV. Even more startling, the Schiavo Affair has demonstrated the willingness of big budget media to lead with the Schiavo Affair through two weekly news cycles. Rarely, if ever, does one story carry that much weight in the production of news, let alone the story of one person.
All of this suggests, sadly, that the American public is once again bored with governmental politics in the same way that they were bored prior to 9/11. And as a result, the media and our elected officials have latched onto the Schiavo Affair to generate some kind of response.
True, there have been many interesting ethical and political debates to come out of the Schiavo Affair. But just about anything pumped constantly into the public airwaves for weeks and weeks will spark an ethical debate or two--even something as banal as a 0.5 second video of a woman's breast during the Superbowl.
But how could it be that that the public is once again so bored? There is so much happening in government these days that it is hard to imagine anyone not taking an interest.
For example, the President is spending millions in taxpayer money to convince voters to dismantle Social Security. Our children, parents, brothers and sisters continue to die in a war that was supposed to be long since over by now. Our national reserves of unspoiled landscape--a topic so important that Thomas Jefferson devoted his life to it--are now being turned over to oil companies who will destroy them in order to produce barely enough gasoline to fill our SUVs for a year.
There must be something in all these issues that could bring people to their TV sets! But apparently, governmental politics is not enough. The public is bored, again.
So what has changed?
Terror Alerts End, the Public Gets Bored
With so much focus on the Schiavo Affair, most Americans probably haven't even noticed that it's been months since we've had a terrorist alert.
Remember how it was a long, long, long time ago--when every time we turned on the television we saw the ashen faces of John Ashcroft or Tom Ridge telling us that the there was a new terrorism threat and that we should use caution? Well...all that has vanished. The public concern over terrorism, driven by the re-election ambitions of George W. Bush and the political strategy of Karl Rove--it is all gone.
Terrorism, of course, hasn't changed. In fact, the world has more terrorists than ever as a result of George W. Bush's mishandled war in Iraq.
The only thing that has changed is that the Bush White House is no longer framing every singe political debate in terms of terrorism and the threat of terrorism. Remember what that was like?
"If you support John Kerry's tax plan, a nuclear bomb will explode in your town!"
"If you vote for John Kerry, a nuclear bomb will explode in your town!"
"If you don't stop the Democrats, a nuclear bomb will explode in your town!"
Ahhh. Those were simpler times.
But all that is gone now, and as a result both Democrats and Republicans are having trouble holding the attention of the American public.
For example, in order to get people's attention about his Social Security scheme, the President needed to take his campaign on the road. For anyone who is not following this Presidential road show, George W. Bush is working harder to "educate" the public on his views of Social Security than he ever worked during his re-election campaign. And still, nobody seems to be listening.
As for the Democrats, their efforts are also falling on deaf ears. With the exception of a dedicated core of party activists, the Democratic effort to draw attention to the problems in Iraq or to sound the alarm about the fiscal disaster created by the Bush White House--nada. Nobody is listening.
America's boredom with governmental politics, it would seem, is the only real bipartisan affair out there.
When the Customer Won't Come to the Store...
In the midst of this latest round of national boredom, the lawyers for the Schindler family have been able to use the airwaves to create a story compelling enough to gain momentum and to garner the patronage of politicians desperate for attention.
Tom Delay, for example, did not seek out the Schindler family and ask them if he could advocate on behalf of their daughter. Rather, the Schindler family's issue was one of many issues that ended up in a pile of political topics on Tom Delay's desk--along with hundreds of other urgent matters. For months, Delay and his staff looked at the Schindler issue and dismissed it for something else they thought was more important, such as keeping their boss out of the Texas state penal system. Then, finally, as of a few weeks ago, Delay and his staff decided that they would give the Schindler's a try. Why? Because they thought it would capture the attention of voters.
And the same can be said of Jeb Bush. And the same can be said of Jeb Bush's brother.
What changed in America was not the condition or the story of Terry Schiavo such that suddenly, key government officials took an interest in the case. What changed was the realization on the part of politicians that they were out of anything else that might capture the attention of the American public. So they went with the damsel in distress. And whadya know: it worked.
American Politics Again without a Dominant Frame
What's the key issue to come out of the Schiavo affair? No, it's not the culture of life or the difficulty of end of life decisions.
The real issue is this: the disappearance of "terrorism" as the key frame for all of American politics has gone completely unnoticed by the American media. Instead of wondering where this important topic has gone--or wondering if it was ever really important to the Bush administration if they could drop it so suddenly--the media has shifted all of its resources to the Schiavo Affair.
For the GOP, the Schiavo Affair seems to have generated new energy and new enthusiasm, albeit with an ambiguous outcome. In entering the fray, the GOP did something it rarely does: it launched a PR campaign before it had been rigorously tested by their PR firms. As a result, the GOP leadership lined up behind the Schiavo issue--the way they line up on every issue--and the American public turned against them.
For the Democrats, the turn to the Schiavo affair was so sudden that it took them by surprise. Completely by surprise. Until Jesse Jackson showed up in Florida to pose with the Schindler's (yesterday), no Democrat at all had directly involved herself in the Schiavo Affair. That Jesse Jackson is now the face of the Democratic involvement in this issue suggests that the DNC is worried that the frame brought on by the issue (e.g., the so-called "culture of life" debate) is threatening to be a good enough frame that it could get the public interested again.
But is the public really interested in what the GOP has to say?
It doesn't seem that they are. All that really seems certain is that the public is once again obsessed with a damsel in distress, the same way they were obsessed with Chandra Levy.
So, while Americans pray for and politicans prey on Terry Schiavo, they should also hope that it doesn't take another 9/11 to get the public interested in real politics again. That would be a real tragedy.
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