I hate politics. They invariably degenerate into power struggles between equally greedy parties or people. This year the stench of machiavellianism is particularly striking.
Don't get me wrong, I think that so far, everyone who has tried to run or is in the race, top or bottom of the ticket, is basically as personally qualified to be president as the rest of them. We are supposed to have a representative system, and there is actually a surprising diversity of the population represented on either ticket. So far, so good.
But then the mud starts to fly. Then the barbs and jibes. Then the slings and arrows. This arms race only has one end that I perceive. Whether the red button is pushed by the campaigns or by the 5th column YouTubers or the 529s, somebody's gonna go nuclear towards the end. "John McCain doesn't want to let a black man in the White House." "Barack Obama won't let a woman get anywhere close to the seat of power." And there will be the fallout and winter of the b-word. Bigot, that is.
It is such a horrid word. It is a harsh, blunt, divisive word, one best ascribed by historians with the protection of time and grave between them and their subjects. You can't say it and win. By calling someone a bigot, you draw a big black line. It doesn't matter which side of that line you are on, since you have sundered rational debate by drawing it. It is the end, and I fear it is nigh.
Why have poll gaps closed so tight in recent elections? Why has the congress been functionally deadlocked for quite some time? Why has our "conservative" president succeeded in squandering his administration, leaving a legacy of missed opportunities and bigger government? I submit that it is due to this strangling of debate that occurs when the bigot lines are drawn. There are many. So many it hurts. Why are there so many? Why do we face such a polarizing choice when flipping between Fox and CNN?
I think our national attention span has been greatly diminished. The decisions people are asked to make are "A or B, NOWNOWNOW!" What the relative merits of A or B might be will be drowned in the din of the next news story. Yesterday's
Doonesbury was particularly salient.
If this sort of yellow journalism, yellow legislation, and yellow campaigning takes root, Americans will lose that once-so-defining characteristic: a nation of misfits thrown together who acheive astonishing things. Think about what you think. Consider that others may hold their beliefs equally dear. If you want to win them over, try talking, not shouting. The heritage of our nation, of eurdite lettered men conversing at length with dirt farmers about one idea or another, is in danger from the din of the demagogues.
Let's hold out.
