Why....oh why...do we only want to focus on, and discuss the trivial. I see the penchant for "escapism", even here on "the politics" forum, even though there are predominently "chatter" forums, taking up the rest of the TFP site.
The politics forum is, of course, as shallow as the focus is on the world that it reflects, yet a "how do you vote" thread, was created a few days ago in general discussion, presumably because, even though it tends toward shallow chatter, "the politics" forum, is to be avoided by those who want to to do political topics, but don't post "in politics"....as if it is blighted or diseased.
Can you imagine how much more vehemently this forum would be avoided, if it actually did what it represented to do....discuss politics, in this era of unprecedented abuse of power, lack of checks and balances on the executive by the legislature and the press, in reaction proportional to the actual level of abuse and extra constitutional executive actions?
Is it because once in a while, more than just chatter is attempted here? What are these self limiting "rules" all about? Is it at all possible that the near universal preference for the shallow focus, the primary reason the country is so fucked up?
Quote:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwa...der/index.html
....So the Senate issues a report documenting that the President and Vice President repeatedly made false statements to induce the citizenry to support a war against another country that has left hundreds of thousands of people dead for no reason -- added on to the piles of outright lawbreaking under this administration -- and to David Broder, those are just mere "policy disputes" which (unlike Bill Clinton's grave crimes) merit no punishment.
The only news made by that Senate report is that, in our country, a report like this -- documenting that the Government lied us into a war -- is no longer news at all. Extraordinary conduct of that type has been converted by the David Broders of the world into commonplace "policy disputes." As a result, our press corps -- which literally spent hours and hours on the air Thursday night pitifully staking out Hillary Clinton's house and breathlessly reporting on the movement of every SUV and have spent days (with no end in sight) sharing with each other their moronic fantasies about what Clinton and Obama might have said to one another -- have ignored almost completely the issuance of that Senate report, as well as the fact that John McCain now says he embraces the extremist theories of presidential power that have led to the panoply of these abuses.
It's not difficult to understand why our media stars are so dismissive of the crimes committed by the Bush administration. It's because, with very few exceptions, they've endorsed and defended those crimes. ...
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Are we going to lose everything because we care more about who wins American Idol, than we do about who leads us, what they are doing with the authority we vest in them, and what the press is or isn't prioritizing in their reporting?
Is it "normal" for a "politics forum" to be as disposed towards trivia and banter as the non-political forums are? Is there any hope, or will we avert our gaze as checks and balances in government, and the challenge to authority by the US press, wane away?