Political Discourse has Tanked

Political discourse in this country has tanked ... participants, and the media, by and large miss what was once its honest object. Meaningful exchange and debate of ideas to advance the interests of the citizenry? It's not done much anymore. To our chagrin the cultural imperative of purposeful political dialog has been supplanted by the imperative of power and influence. Winning is now the political end in itself, the interests of the country be damned. Wisely and prudently informing the electorate of the relevant issues affecting them, and the options available to address those issues, and the logical consequences of one course vs. the other, and a fair representation of the historic evidence pertaining to the issues isn't what concerns our politicos today. Our loss.

Besides, having a meaningful political discourse requires the exchange of ideas and a thorough understanding of history. Which means that having ideas worthy of serious political debate is hard. It takes work and focus and intelligence and study. Who has time for that when you have to get reelected? It's much easier to just throw stones at the other guy. And shame on the public, for we seem to relish every bit of red meat they throw us. We respond to that crap, or so the polls tell us. We're lazy too in this respect. We don't demand that the politicos deliver something useful for our consideration. We're perfectly happy to consume whatever mindless, purposeless crap they spoon feed us, and then talk about it as though it were important. As a culture, we don't think for ourselves much anymore, and that's a big part of the problem.