Political opium

Athenae’s usual astute take on how Republicans get elections despite how poorly they govern

God wasn’t on the ballot that November. God wasn’t anywhere near any of the issues that were in fact important. Just as “should the national anthem be English-only” isn’t anywhere near anything we need to worry about. But people will, and damn it if you ignore that, you ignore the political reality that for most people the thought process is: You ain’t got a job and you ain’t got no savings and your neighbor’s kid just got his ass shot off in Fallujah, but damn it, you can fix this national anthem thing right quick.

And it’s not so much a party problem as it is one of utter debasement of the national conversation, until all you need in order to consider yourself politically knowledgable is this beauty-shop gossip grasp of Today Show-type issues. All you need to know you can get from The View. Bullshit media-driven chatter about nothing, about sweaters and God and now this, as if somebody somewhere singing Oh Say Can You See really matters. Of course it doesn’t.