If there's one thing that's become evident in the 2016 Republican Primaries, it's that our celebrity culture has taken itself to a new level. Apparently gone are the times when we evaluated (or even thought about) the policies that a new President would enact - now it's all about who can say the most outrageous or provocative statement, and thereby make the news.
If you're paying attention to the media, you know this refers to the Donald Trump candidacy, and the idiocy that has been the last two weeks of campaigning. With clear attacks against him, and not-so-veiled references to his manhood (by both Trump and several of the other candidates), we have seen the value of political rhetoric sink into levels heretofore thought unreachable.
This isn't entirely spontaneous, though - at least I don't think so. The personal attacks on Trump by Marco Rubio weren't really about pointing out his faults - they were about getting free airtime on a national stage, to show that he was relevant in the campaign. I'm sure he didn't think very hard about bringing the dialogue down 'into the mud' which he said a few weeks ago he would never do. He couldn't, as he's fighting for his political survival.
That doesn't make it right, though, and it in part only emboldened Trump supporters, who think he's being attacked unfairly. They're right, he is.
What he should be attacked on are his policies, and I would like to see that take more of a center stage in this election before it's too late. While Trump may have some policy positions, that's not what he wants to talk about. he wants to be bombastic, outrageous, to hone in on the five word phrase that Americans can remember and repeat ("Let's make America great again"? I didn't realize we weren't!).
While we're all focused on that, we'll neglect to notice that when his statements don't directly contradict each other, they often don't make any sense. Trump has as much chance of getting his policies passed into law as Bernie Sanders would with a Republican congress.
As citizens (for those of us in the U.S.), we need to demand more out of our leadership candidates. We need to get them to talk about what they will do in office, not just during the campaign. We need to know how they would work to get legislation passed, what their real stands are on issues. There are still enough states yet to vote (mine included) to make a difference in the selection of our nominees. Before it's too late, and we nominate someone who can't defend a policy position against any rational attack, we need to press the candidates on the issues that matter, and not be embarrassed by our selection in September and October.......
.......unless all we really want is bread and circuses.
