Are we going to allow our political candidates to continue to talk nonsense and avoid the real issues?

 Political Debate Reduced to Schoolyard Taunts … That Work! 

By James Terminiello 

 

Donald Trump is a racist … Joe Biden is senile … Chris Christie is a fat whale … Kamala Harris failed English … Ron DeSantis is an SOB … John Fetterman is a cretin. It goes on and on! 


I don’t care if any of these statements are true, false, twisted, exaggerated, or even libelous. They add nothing to the political debate and, indeed, they subtract from all this is relevant and important by simply getting in the way.  In this Twitter-pated age, our political discourse has been reduced to rancid little one-liners that should have been left to die in the schoolyard. 

  

Sadly, this policy is being fostered and encouraged by a media system that will do anything for ratings and to cling to an audience that is easily distracted by multiple media outlets.  


When you have nothing to say (which is all too often) the media resorts to nonsense like The Democrat Party is the party of slavery (Yes in 1861. So?) or Trump issued a Muslim ban (Yes on 4 of the 60 or so Muslim nations. Some ban!)  Words without meaning to fill up the air. Political analysis reduced to sound bites that aren’t even real. In short: smoke.  Then the political talking heads get into headed debates over these non-issues adding to the fact-choking fumes.  


Even more sadly, this smokescreen works! Look at the 2022 midterm elections. What should have been a referendum on rampant inflation, a gateless southern border, growing lawlessness, reckless spending, energy polices and gas prices, a failed Afghan withdrawal, ultra-woke political appointments, transgender posturing, and more government regulations was instead about: 


  • Abortion being made illegal (It wasn’t and it was obviously never going to happen)  


  • Good vs. Evil (Evil embodied by Donald Trump who wasn’t even running for anything)  


What about the issues? What about policies? What about plans for the future? What about our collective wallets? Has the voting public been reduced to grunting savages who cannot read beyond the Tweet? If 2022 is any indication, I fear, the evidence points in that direction. 


We are now in for the long slog to the 2024 presidential election. Already the misdirection missiles are flying. Talking heads in the media are debating the same irrelevant nonsense they did during the 2022 midterms.  The goal is to avoid even mentioning the real issues that are at stake and holding the candidates to the fire unless they give us real ideas and real solutions. It’s Good vs. Evil all over again. Pot shots! Innuendo! Below the belt insults!  


It is up to all of us to say to the candidates:  


Shaddup! Tell me what you are going to do. How you are going to do it. What it will cost. Why I should support you. And how your plans will affect me!  

  

Are we as a nation up to it or do we just want to be entertained by the political comedy acts that are masquerading as campaigns?  


Author James Terminiello, whose latest book “Junkyard” will be published in the Fall, writes from Mount Laurel, New Jersey 

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