The whole “will Gore run?” discussion got me thinking “why the hell should he?”. The level of our current political discourse is so demeaning that I can’t see how any reasonably sane person would want to run for president. A few days back, I posted about the “sound bite” media that is motivated by corporate commercialism. But that is only one factor in the decline of our discourse. Another is that our media is increasingly personality driven. So many of the major pundits are famous for being famous, not for any wisdom they may have. They get a lot of attention for sounding “pithy”, so they look for lines that have “buzz”. So we get to hear about Hillary’s laugh or Edwards’ hair. Because a serious policy debate would take time, and they have to cut to a commercial every few minutes. Why would Gore want to put himself through it?
Which brings me to another major problem with our current political discourse: Professional politicians. It’s not a Democratic vs. Republican or Liberal vs. Conservative issue. In the current climate of attack politics, the only people who enter the arena are motivated by a desire for power and money. They have no desire or motivation to truly represent the “people”. The “people” aren’t funding the campaigns that keep them in office. And in national politics, the campaign never ends. To remain in office, they’re constantly running for office. Thus the “Professional Politician”.
What a fornicating mess we have, where government “of the people, by the people, for the people” is no longer possible. No wonder the people hate politics.
(cross-posted at http://www.pygalgia.blogspot.com/
Pygalgia)
Political Discourse
