Facebook: the most reliable source of political news

As the election draws closer, the masses decide to impart their political wisdom on the rest of the world through the most worthy of news sources: Facebook. I certainly hope you can detect my sarcasm. I personally choose to stay out of this embarrassing sphere of political debate mostly because the articles and comments posted are detrimental to both political parties. For example, a recent comment on an anti-Obama status was “give the poor guy a break.” While I understand that this person’s intention was to defend Obamas actions as president, it comes off as if she is saying that Obama has not done a good job as president, yet we shouldn’t be so hard on him. This is absolutely not the right message to be sending especially in such a crucial political time. Yes, some people unfairly blame Obama for the economic climate but that does not mean they should give him a break. A better comment would be to respond with an informed, concise rebuttal outlining Obama’s successes.

Some people could really use this book...

In addition to poorly thought out comments, Facebook is also home to an array of links to questionable news and opinion articles. One that I recently saw was a CNN opinion piece titled ‘Young Voters, don’t vote for Obama’ written byAlex Schriver, the national chairman of the College Republican National Committee. Schriver was responding to a CNN article, ‘Young Voters, Don’t Give up on Obama’ in which Jack Schlossberg makes the point that “Just because our politics and government can disappoint us sometimes doesn't mean we should forget how far we've come.” This is an important message for the young voters who came out in masses for the 2008 election, inspired by Barack Obama's message of hope, change, and 'yes we can'. Of course people are discouraged. Of course the economy hasn’t recovered yet. These aren’t surprising facts but they are easily forgotten. As Bill Clinton so eloquently reminded us at the Democratic National Convention, “No president, no president — not me or any of my predecessors, no one, could have repaired all the damage he found in just four years. But he has laid the foundation for a new, modern, successful economy, of shared prosperity.” Yet somehow this escapes many people who continue to share their uninformed political postings on Facebook.

Taking a look at ‘Young Voters, don’t vote for Obama’, I can find several issues aside from my general difference of opinion. Drawing attention to one of them, Schriver counters Schlossberg’s reminder of how far we’ve come with the following, “Unfortunately, such an argument demonstrates a sloppiness with the facts. Take, for instance, the fact that unemployment has remained above 8% since the beginning of Obama's term. Or, according to this analysis, that half of recent college graduates are jobless or underemployed Or that under Obama, the national debt has risen $5 trillion. Or that Obama presided over the first credit downgrade in American history.” Click on the link about the national debt. It’s almost laughable. The article Shriver uses to cite Obama’s failures actually explains how the national debt cannot be blamed on Obama. How did the debt increase $5 trillion if Obama didn’t cause it? “The answer is the recession. During a recession tax revenue falls as income falls, and spending on existing social services such as unemployment compensation and food stamps increases. The result is a larger deficit. However, Obama didn't cause the recession -- it was already well underway when he took office -- and he cannot be blamed for the debt we've accumulated as a result of the downturn.” I’d also like to point to the fact that “Stock indexes rose for a fourth consecutive session on Friday to close out the week at nearly five-year highs” despite a weak global economy. Obama is making progress. Obama is proving ‘yes we can.’

Perhaps the most laughable part of Shriver’s article was the closing: “We can reward truth-telling. We can elect Mitt Romney.” Well let’s look at a fact check of his recent Republican National Convention speech.

“Unlike President Obama, I will not raise taxes on the middle class.”

Obama has actually extended Bush tax cuts and only plans to eliminate them for persons making over $250,000 a year. Hmm, well I’m not sure when $250,00 a year became middle class but I guess when you claim $77,000 in business losses to get a tax deduction on your Olympic horse, your view of money gets a little bit skewed. I could go on but instead I’ll direct you to the Washington Post’s Pinocchio test. No candidate is going to be 100% truthful. There will always be skewed facts and misrepresentations but you would be hard-pressed to prove that voting for Mitt Romney is voting for “truth-telling.”