Turn on the television, only if you feel like throwing up. Open up your laptops, if you’re begging for a migraine. Without wanting any of it, we’re all subjected to the stench of yellow journalism. Anytime we don’t want it, we get to know which celebrity had another implant. Which athlete just proposed to their girlfriend or is dating an actress or supermodel. Who ever the heck we don’t care about is pregnant. Reality ‘t.v.’ feeds up a buffet of non talented ‘entertainers’ who’ve never taken the time to hone a craft to earn their right to be notorious. All the while having much more influence and popularity on social media than legitimate entertainers, who’ve received years of training or experience. We’ve gotten more banal and much dumber as a society and no one can dispute it.
It used to be that the pool of candidates running for office came out of traditional facets of society such as law firms, community service institutions and the education sector. A few from business. There was a time no one would’ve taken a former reality t.v. personality seriously. Now, they’ve held titles like President. It’s a direct result of our constituency’s value tree. Dumb boss equals idiot employees. Moron voters……………stupid office holders.
In a perfect world, people would base their ballot on sound research, careful consideration. Yet, we know that is not our current environment. Turn on right wing media, left wing media and it’s about who yelled at who on the congressional floor last Tuesday. What congressional rep responded to an aggressive social media post from another across the aisle. Which rep was the most bombastic on the floor prior to a vote, or even in public. We don’t seem to mind maniacal behavior such as stalking and menacing a former school shooting victim advocate on the streets of the U.S. capital. Just as long as we’re entertained! Any day now, I’m waiting on trading cards honoring a U.S. House rep or Senator as we have with baseball players. With America living in an epidemic of ’emasculated vicarious’ culture we care more about other’s lives than our own. This leads to a normalcy of people worship. As you can guess low self esteem and depression are at an all time high, as the two issues go hand in hand.
Now, more than ever potential office holders must count the cost of running for office. Some consideration should provoke a move to statewide office compared to a district race. Or a move to an entirely new state if that was a nonegotiable. Tragically, for some, as needed as a compassionate, sophisticated candidate is; altogether staying out of a race may be the healthy decision. No one wants a stupid boss. In some parts of America, if you run for office and win; you’d have thousands of them. That’s a great tragedy for any decent man or woman.
