2012 Election Takes Backseat to Gossip

If the majority of the University of Mary Washington campus were asked who Herman Cain was without the benefit of a Google machine or the option to phone a friend, how many words do you think the average person would be able to say about him? Ten words or less, right?

Some of the student population probably still doesn’t know that he’s a Republican presidential candidate who is under heat now because of sexual harassment allegations that have come down on him in recent days.

On the other side of things, if the same group was asked who Kim Kardashian was with the same rules in place, most of them could probably spout off at least 500 words just off the top of their head. And what exactly is the Kardashian clan famous for? Kim has no discernible talent, but is basically Paris Hilton 2.0.

Sex tape? Check. Reality show where nothing happens and every tiny aspect of her life is overdramatized to make it seem important? Check. A shift to become a “fashion designer” and then the release of a crappy perfume? Check.

Kim has pulled a Houdini act in convincing the world she is important when she isn’t. When you have no talent you have to keep yourself constantly in the public eye, so they don’t have time to realize that you don’t matter.

Thus Kim’s latest stunt: a $10 million wedding that made women flock to television sets like it was the Royal Wedding all over again, only to file for divorce a mere 72 days later.

But of course, you already knew that.

So what does that say about us college students? We are supposedly young adults getting a higher education and on the cusp of entering the real world, yet infinitely more of you know about Kim’s recent attention grab than the fact that a rising presidential candidate is doing his best to dodge some scandalous allegations.

Cain actually matters. An NBC/Marist poll reported on Oct. 19 had him leading other Republican candidates in a pair of crucial states to the Republican primary race, South Carolina and Florida.

The problem is that the majority of college students are among the nearly 11 million people who follow Kim Kardashian on Twitter and are too busy checking her feed to keep tabs on the latest primary debate.

This has nothing to do with political affiliation, but is simply a matter of being responsibly aware of candidates, their qualifications, and their possible ineptitude. That’s not to say that everyone has to become a political junkie obsessing over every aspect of an election, but just turn it from E! to ABC News every now and again.

So instead of glorifying a woman who is famous just for being famous and had a marriage so short it made Judy Hample and William Frawley’s separate reigns as UMW president seem like centuries of service, perhaps we should keep better tabs on those who could possibly be the next leader of the free world.