Rant

I've been spending most of my Sunday mornings lately tidying my house while half-watching (or watching, depending on my level of interest) the networks' political analysis fare. This past Sunday, George Stephanopolous interviewed John McCain. I just found a transcript of the interview here.

Now, if you know me at all, you know that I disagree with the vast majority of the McCain platform. That, however, is not why I'm all ranty (well, today, anyway). What irks me is the blatant avoidance of difficult questions, redirection to topics he preferred to discuss, and failure to apply logic or intellectual sincerity to his responses. Ya don't like the fact that economists don't think a gas tax holiday will be effective, so you slam economists en masse as being out of touch with lower income Americans? Seriously? You respond to a question on how to solve the mortgage crisis by swivelling over to Congressional spending and dependence on foreign oil? For real? You're asked about your previously-stated opposition to gay adoption, and all you can muster is a robotic repition of the phrases "two parent families" (which, really, doesn't serve your argument, methinks) and "traditional family values," resulting in a distinct neither-confirm-nor-deny undertone? Come on now. I'll give Stephanopolous credit for calling him on some of this stuff, but I also think he let too much of it slide.

I know a large segment of American voters have resigned themselves to the notion that politicians are, by nature, evasive and unresponsive when asked about difficult policy matters, but it still infuriates me that they get away with it... and they get away with it because so many of us don't think carefully and critically about the logic employed in answers like these. I know there were heads nodding all around the country Sunday morning, people agreeing that of course, those "elitist" economists must not have any understanding of what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck, without stopping to realize that Senator McCain didn't answer the question he was asked.

[Along the same lines, the rampant use of "elitist" as a negative label - and smokescreen - to distract the public from substantive issues? Maddening! Remind me again, when did being intelligent, eloquent, and well-informed become a bad thing, particularly for a potential leader of our country? That is an important job, people! I for one would like the person filling it to excel in all three of those areas.]

Grrr.