Josh Toland post #3

Blog Post #3

For this weeks blog post, I chose to analyze a picture that perfectly represents the current scope of American politics. The picture depicts a large group of sheep choosing to cast their votes for either a wolf or a lion, both of which would happily devour the sheep.

The picture also seemingly attacks the current state of American democracy; a system in which two choices are given to the people and many other candidates are not given national attention. While Gary Johnson has received a small amount of media attention, most of it has been focused on his "Aleppo" and "name a foreign leader you admire" gaffes. While these are pretty inexcusable, they pale in comparison to some of the lies and outrageous policy positions of the two major party candidates. Whereas Gary has received an amount of media attention, other candidates such as Jill Stein and Evan McMullin have received little to none. That's one of the main points of the picture, the public is seemingly only given two choices, but others do exist who may be more beneficial to democracy than the given

candidates.

The American populace is also represented as sheep in the picture; This points to the fact that American's have a low political efficacy and are followers of the media and those who seek to influence. I can hop on Facebook and see one hundred articles that people have shared from BuzzFeed or Fox News, but ill probably never see something shared from The Cato Institute or The Tax Foundation. This can be attested to how most Americans, at least people I know, base their political opinions off of what others tell them or what they see on tv. It has been hard for me to find many people who form their own opinions can back up by peer-reviewed sources, with time to prepare of course.

The pictures choice to display the two candidates as predators also speaks volumes. The sheep are unwittingly voting for their demise, whether it be through the policies of the lion or the wolf. The arguing sheep can argue back and forth which candidate is worse, but both will arguable hurt them all in different ways.