Legacies

By Lou Grant | Nov 04, 6:00 AM

It’s time to think about legacies. We’ll be looking back on this election shortly, trying to make sense of it. Here are a few things I don’t understand.

• First, what is the future of the Republican Party in Illinois and nationally. The party seems to have embraced a vision of America that relies on rural values that are strongly at war with urban and suburban values. If it follows the path of making Governor Sarah Palin its leader these next four years, why would suburban and urban voters be interested in the party’s program four years from now?
• As a follow-up, what does the party have to do to become relevant again? Does the GOP, in Illinois, need Rod and Todd more than the Democratic Party? Can a party reinvent itself by running against corruption when it lost power largely due to corrupt stewardship?
• Second, I keep hearing that people are afraid of Senator Barack Obama because he is an unknown. There were three presidential debates, two nationally aired presentations (at the Mile High Stadium and last week on primetime), and there seemed to be a Democratic Primary debate every week for months. There were stories on the man by the thousands. If these people don’t have enough information yet on Obama, what will it take? Do they even watch television or read newspapers?
• Why, at the end of the campaign, did I have the feeling that appearances on Saturday Night Live and the Daily Show do more to clarify the personality of the two men and also Palin, than all of the reporting? What are these comedy shows doing right? How can the things these shows do well and do right be applied in a more serious context?
• Can the news media be taken as seriously in future elections, given that it is shuttering and downsizing its bureaus in Springfield and Washington, D.C.? How will reporting on state and federal matters be handled by local teams that are smaller and are probably not as well versed in reporting on government issues?