I don’t usually subscribe to apocalyptic alarmism about the imminent demise of American democracy. But every now and then, I confess, the doomsayers get it right.
We may not be standing on the precipice of tyranny just yet, but we are slouching dangerously toward a system of government in which supreme power is no longer vested in the people.
I mean, sure, we have a process that appears colorfully and raucously democratic, with televised debates, town halls, tea parties, occupations, and all the attack ads corporate money can buy. But strip away the gloss and turn down the volume — and what’s left has all the seriousness of a pantomime.
We’ve turned politics into a performance art and politicians into entertainers, so that what matters is not how our leaders approach complicated problems, but how they squeeze solutions into 30-second sound bites.
We want catchy slogans and political acrobatics, not bland centrism that might actually make too much sense. Let’s face it: Middle of the road is boring. We need to laugh at our politicians, get mad at them, marvel at their audacity or lampoon them on late-night TV. Listening to long explanations based on well-considered principles? Well, that demands way too much attention and time.
The result is a political class that values showmanship over leadership.
Make no mistake: Our politicians aren’t practitioners of statecraft in the traditional sense. They aren’t concerned with politics as a process of collective decision making. They are, in fact, immersed in the practice of politics as sport. Here, partisanship is what drives the game. Elections are like finale performances. And an electoral victory is the grand prize.
It’s a system designed around elections as the end — not the beginning — of a representative political process.
This is why elected officials often seem unfamiliar to the people who vote them into office. With elections as their curtain call, our actor-politicians go back to being themselves just as soon as the results are in — and since we never know who they really are, we’re left disillusioned and confused.
Of course, we have only ourselves to blame for this mess. By elevating entertainment over substance, and picking performers over leaders, we have effectively surrendered our democratic power to vote for meaningful change.
This, I think, has gone on long enough.
It’s time we realized that politics is not reality TV. Our country needs more than another lousy show.