I was not planning to watch the debate held between the top ten candidates for the Republican Party Presidential nomination. That debate took place on Thursday evening, August 6th. I got sucked in.
I found myself almost mesmerized by the candidates and their very incisive responses to the difficult questions thrown at them by the Fox News commentators. I thought the debate was well staged. It commanded my attention.
I couldn't turn away, although I wanted to. I thought it was appalling.
What struck me most was the energy and the profound enthusiasm shown by both candidates and members of the audience for sentiments that included the desirability of going to war in the Middle East, and the idea that it was right to let women die rather than to perform an abortion that might be called for because the mother's life was in danger. Such sentiments truly sparkled with electricity on the red, white, and blue Fox News stage.
I was appalled.
I was appalled, and I remembered Yeats.
That debate reminded me so much of The Second Coming:
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
http://www.newsweek.com/preliminary-ratings-suggest-record-audience-gop-debate-360770
There was some of that nonsense in both the GOP forums, but it was not universal. Now imagine a similar meeting of all Democrat possible candidates, and count the number of freedoms they are "willing" for us to give up, in the name of security, abortion, wealth redistribution, gun control, political correctness, anti-Christianism, etc. Conservatives and Libertarians would be even more appalled. Hang on, it is going to be a long season.
ReplyDeleteI don't watch television, so my exposure to the debate(sic) is limited to photographs and text.
ReplyDeleteBut it doesn't really matter. National politics in the United States has long been relegated to propaganda and entertainment with little, if any, useful political content. No matter what is said during the run-up of the grand political circus, no political candidate is held to their promises once in office.
Ever since Al Gore was defeated by the Supreme Court during a highly manipulated election process, national politics has almost no relevance to the average citizen. Candidates are chosen by the oligarchy, paraded before the public in audacious display, then inserted into office through an electronically controlled "vote." As if voting for national offices held any meaning regarding democracy.
The only democracy remaining in the United States exists at the very local level, city and county, where we can meet our candidates face to face, elect them into office and work closely with them on a daily basis to make sure they do not stray from their avowed representation of our interests.