Maybe I’m over-reacting. Maybe everything will work out just
fine. But what is happening in national politics right now seems frightening,
and more than a little dangerous.
Everybody’s been focusing on the polls, and the news that
Donald Trump and Ben Carson are leading presumably more rational, electable
candidates. But that’s only a small part of the problem. Seems to me, there are
bigger concerns:
Politics
has turned into a blood sport, for the politicians, for the media, for
the public.
Last week’s Republican debate on CNBC was just the latest
example. The debate was principally a shouting match – “Chaotic,” one
Washington Post headline put it – with CNBC announcers joining in and the
audience booing and cheering.
This is entertainment, not a contribution to knowledge, not
something to help Americans perform one of their most important citizenship
duties.
And many in the media are aiding and abetting. The day after
the debate, news websites focused heavily on the fights and the competition,
minimally on what little substance the debate contained. “Breakout
Performances,” “Breakout Moments,” “5 Big Confrontations,” “Jeb Bush Needed a
Touchdown,” “Rubio Won,” “Carson and Trump Lack Electricity,” “The 15 Most
Explosive Moments,” “Bush Bombed,” “Jeb Died on That Stage,” “Crowd Roars as
Cruz Attacks the Media”: those were the headlines.
Politico’s Roger Simon related Ted Cruz’s attack on the CNBC
moderators and
then noted: “The audience members went nuts. This was gutsy stuff. This was
fun.”
The
candidates are lying with abandon, in the debates and on the campaign
trail.
A Washington
Post Fact Checker article in the Washington Post detailed some of the
falsehoods: Carly Fiorina insisting that “92 percent of the jobs lost during
Barack Obama’s first term belonged to women” and that Bernie Sanders wants to
raise taxes to as high as 90 percent. Donald Trump insisting he has never said
something that is plainly visible on his website. Ben Carson saying he has not
been involved with Mannatech, a nutritional
supplements company for whom he has given speeches and testimonials.
And there was Chris Christie saying Social Security will be
broke in seven or eight years. Marco Rubio saying that “for
the first time in 35 years, we have more businesses closing than starting.”
Rick Santorum saying the US has lost 2 million manufacturing jobs during the
Obama administration. Complete misstatements that have been refuted before -but
the candidates repeat them and roll right on.
All
of this has a real effect.
The candidates’ smug confidence as they stick
to their lies, the jockeying and upstaging of each other to try to dominate the
debate, the jeers and cheers from the crowds, the media score-keeping: This
influences polls, which influence how voters feel about a candidate’s viability.
And it influences big-money donations, which are already chipping away at the
foundations of democracy.
The
presidential election seems a long way away right now, but the first
stage is well under way. And in February, things get more serious, with the
Iowa and Nevada caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.
Presidential election campaigns should be an opportunity for
serious public discussions. And they could be a terrific history-as-it-unfolds
civics lessons, particularly for children. But what will this campaign teach
our children? What do we want them to learn from it?
In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Inquisition created a
particularly terrifying civics lesson, with crowds gathering and cheering as
people were paraded through the streets and were burned at the stake. Is it too
big a reach to draw a comparison between those public spectacles and now? We’re
burning democracy at the stake, aren’t we?
Coming up: another Republican debate, on
November 10, hosted by Fox Business and the Wall Street Journal.
This article appears in Nov 4-10, 2015.
