I don’t care who you plan to vote for in November. I don’t care whether the media is biased in favor of one candidate or another. I do care that the media continue to make broad, sweeping generalizations about who is likely to favor a particular candidate and not in very nice ways either.

       There are people who support the McCain/Palin ticket; there are people who support the Obama/Biden ticket. That’s the beauty of the two-party system: we get to choose. But we shouldn’t be insulted because we favor one party over the other. McCain supporters may be fundamentalists who cling to their guns and religion or who have “aboveground swimming pools” (Richard Cohen, “The Debate’s Biggest Loser.” New York Times, October 7, 2008).  But why do we need to label people in such a manner? If the media do have a bias in favor of one candidate, why aggravate the people in whose hands the matter rests? Do the media think that these voters are going to think, “Hey, I’m an idiot for supporting McCain. Guess I’d better take my shotgun to the polls and vote for Obama.” Or maybe the media think that these voters will say, “Guess I’d better stay home ‘cuz my vote don’t matter.” Maybe a lot of Americans are uninformed. Maybe a lot of voters will choose solely based on the R or the D.  But that does not give the media the right to judge who voters are and which voters support which candidates.

       Politicians and the media both need to realize that their fates rest in the hands of these voters, whoever they may be. Politicians need our votes and the media need good ratings. So listen up! Even if we voters are just plain common folk, you’d better treat us like royalty, because we matter and you cannot afford to lose our support.