American politics has become, in a word, entertaining. If you didn’t know that, then congratulations, time-traveler past, welcome to 2010!
Unfortunately, our politics are entertaining the way Dawn of the Dead is entertaining: it’s pretty scary and pretty ridiculous.
For evidence, you need only look to the veritable bevy of cartoon characters that has entered the political arena during midterm elections: you have Sarah Palin who, bizarrely enough, seems to have taken over the Tea Party, itself a movement of Medicare recipients and former bureaucrats who think the government should be curtailed. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that Alanis Morissette is a supporter of the movement, as it seems to call to people with no sense of irony.
Next, we have Christine O’Donnell who is, unfortunately, completely uninformed about the realities of the Constitution that she proposes to defend. The separation of church and state is definitely a well-regarded institution. Taking O’Donnell to the “You’re seriously a politician?” prom is Rand Paul, who managed to forsake everything he once stood for in order to gather a Kentucky voter base. Deeply held beliefs? Who needs them? He just wants to be a congressman!
And riding over this whole circus is Barack Obama, the Great Communicator who wanted change and hope and transparency but brought more of the same, according to most of the South and the conservative voting bloc. All of this is “seriously” commented upon by Jon Stewart, the comedian who became the voice of a generation.
This is all staggeringly important for the generation of young adults, the people who are finally starting to tear the reins of governance from the hands of the Boomers. We are at a crux, a time of actual non-Obama-endorsed change. The people we elect in the next several cycles are the ones who will be making the policies that will shape our future more than anyone else’s, and we might well have to choose between presidential candidates whose strengths lie in rhetoric and Caribou Barbie, respectively. This is not a good time to be deciding which politicians to back.
Compounding the issue is a general ignorance among our age group of the political realities of our state and nation, an ignorance served up in tandem with a cynicism among those who’ve made it their mission to be politically astute. Those who are informed and qualified realize that government today is a puppet show of which they want no part; those who don’t know don’t care.
So we’re stuck against a rising tide of ridiculous characters who have made it a personal mission to take up the mantle of governance in order to advance a personal agenda. Every assumption a rational person can make is now called into question as “elitism,” and for the first time in history the word “progressive” has taken on negative connotations.
The solution is savvy and willingness of the knowing to bite the bullet and contribute to the discussion. If we want the best among us to rule, they’d better come forward soon or we might be doomed to a real political circus presided over by a comedian ringmaster.