Shirt sleeves, drab dresses and US elections.

In just about every photo of them we see in the newspapers and magazines, in every shot of them on TV, US male politicians are not wearing a jacket and have their shirt sleeves rolled up. The idea is that they are hardworking men. Some chance. The image they want to convey is that they are just like US workers who are the majority and whose votes they are seeking. Whether sitting around a large board room table or preaching from some rostrom it is this phony hardworking sleeves rolled up image they want to project. (Of course they are never digging a hole or hard manual labor with their rolled up sleeves) No wonder so few Americans vote. It is images before ideas and policies.

For the female politicians they must always be demure and not show too much flesh. In the recent elections this was taken to greater extremes by the higher number of top corporate women CEO's who stood. But remember when Michelle Obama first entered the White House the clamor in the mass media about whether she was showing too much of her shoulders or not. As my mother used to say when she was lost for word. "In under God." Now I see Michelle Obama in the latest shot with her shoulders covered up completely, a drab unattractive dress and her hair pulled back like she was at all costs not wanting to look attractive. As I say no wonder so few people vote in this country. It is images before ideas and policies.

The issues that matter to working class people are jobs, wages, conditions, health care, education, security, war. But the US capitalist politicians and their capitalist system have no solution for these ills so they do not want to talk about them. So instead they want to divert peoples attention by images of clothing of something else. If the ills of US capitalism could be solved by rolled up sleeves and demure dresses then all would be well. But this is not the case. Only an independent working class movement which can end capitalism and establish a democratic socialist society can do the job. One recent poll says that 36% of Americans look favorably on socialism. We have a foundation on which to start.

Sean.