Hyper-Democracy

The vulnerability of the U.S. politicians in today's political enviroment makes them overly responsive to every twitch of the American electorate. With the onslaught brought forth by the ever increasing media coverage, politician's every words and moves are documented in real time and spread throught the electorate instantly. I believe that the media has lead to a change not only in politicians but also in the way campaigns are carried out. In previos years well before the world wide web and up-to-the-minute headlines politicians had much more freedom to carry out a campaign with the issues important to them at the for front. Now it seems that a politician can only talk about the issues that are polling highest or the issues that the media is covering. For example, imagine a scenario where a politician wants to go out and talk about an issue that he cares about and believes he has strong policy ideas only to be told by his campaign manager to stick to the issues that the press or the public want to hear about. However, i can also play devils advocate and say that the public influencing politicians is the very essence of democracy. Without it politicians could pursue personal policy choices. The media is leading the United States further and further down a path of unparralled participation by the masses. This inturn, creates a new breed of American Politicians that are ever increasingly affected by every shudder of the electorate. The overall extent of this influence is yet to be seen, but it will be extremely interesting to see how this election shapes up and how future elctions utilize the new forms of media to an even greater extent.