The Cost of Foolishness

I didn't watch last night's Democratic presidential debate. I was working. However, a cursory reading of day after media coverage of the event makes me glad I didn't. They'll tell you, the pundits will, that Barack Obama was on the defensive, and that it wasn't a great debate for him. That may be true, but the real losers here are us, the American people. If the substance of the debate was what the media tell us it was, we're all in deep trouble.

Mostly, the questions, parries, and thrusts seem to have been about past associations (Obama's) , past statements (Clinton's), and not a whole lot else. That's sad, because there's much to talk about, much to debate. Oil prices are going through the roof, causing real pain at the gas pump. Folks in all sorts of jobs across this country are making ends meet by the thinnest of margins. There's a worldwide food shortage most Americans aren't even aware of. And what do candidates choose to talk about? The Weather Underground? Jeremiah Wright? Bosnia and sniper fire?

We ought to hang our heads in shame. If we can't demand more substance from our candidates and the media that questions them, we deserve what we get. How in the world have we gotten to this place? To begin to answer that question would take up much more space than this blog allows, but we can start someplace.

It's time to start raising the bar for everyone connected to the American political process. The foolishness must end, and the public must end it.