Andrew Sullivan nails it: on so many fronts now you see how politics is no longer about the vigorous iand even aggressive debate about ideas with who have different ideas but about trying to destroy them to gain or keep power or discredit them from presenting their ideas. This is what seems to be now rewarded with ratings, audience and votes. There has always been some of this in American politics and political debate on all sides, but the means are now becoming the end. And the issues now are becoming almost seemingly meaningless to some.
Which is a pity, since the issues are so meaningful to all of us…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.