What price do we pay for entertainment in politics? While my liberal friends cringe with horrified fascination and my conservative friends snicker with glee, the eruption of claws between camps Clinton and Kennedy is indicative of the nefarious, and formerly exclusive, forces of apathy, neglect, and idolatry coalescing into a mighty sword of elitism that will cut through our republic much like it did to that of the mighty Romans. Certainly, my comparison will be mocked by the hubris of the present, but it is clear in more than one glaring warning, that politics and celebrity have overtaken our electoral system. It was not another great empire that erased Rome from the map, but internecine fighting, demigods, aristocrats, and a powerful vacuum filled by the Barbarians who sought Rome's vast wealth.
Though we Americans used to pride ourselves on being the less royally minded, if less sophisticated, yeomanry of political revolution, we now seem peculiarly obsessed with all things celebrity. From reality TV on primetime to questions about the candidates' leisure activities and favorite recipes, we are dangerously close to the outright abolition of traditional party structures. No longer is a candidate worth their salt for having climbed the long hard road of service and experience. Now the obstacle of incumbency and change seems more a matter of face recognition, exorbitant advertising costs, and "q-rating".
As Governor Patterson decides what he must do, and the nation takes sick pleasure in watching the melee, I fear that we are reinforcing a precedent of celebrity over merit, and drama over deliberation.
Dr. Jackson Parr
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