At Least The Super Bowl Ends; Relentless Political Media Never Does

February 3, 2014

By Joe Rothstein
Editor, EINNews.com

All politics, all the time.

Don’t you hate it?

I’ve spent the better part of my adult life active in politics in practically every role but candidate. But really, really, really, to obsess over it 24/7, without let up, with barely a break for anything except maybe the Super Bowl?

And now that the Super Bowl’s over, heaven help us.

One day last week the Washington Post chose to make its top headline and story about the paper's latest poll showing Hillary Clinton with a big lead among Democrats for the 2016 presidential nomination. Days before that the Post featured speculation on Rand Paul and Jeb Bush. Chris Christie’s fall from grace as the Republican “frontrunner,” has been dominating news it seems forever.

I mention the Post because it’s my home town newspaper. But it certainly isn’t alone among media outlets in finding every item of political minutia fascinating. Thousands of reporters inhabit Washington, endlessly competing for the same political table scraps.

All of this could be seen as harmless obsession, the way many hang on news and opinions about whether LeBron’s latest stubbed toe will affect his shooting from outside the arc, or whether Seattle’s Richard Stallings is a role model or a “thug.” Sports fanatics (and their sports bars and talk shows) are everywhere.

And, for something completely different than super-charged testosterone, in a few weeks a billion people will be glued to their screens watching to see who wears what gowns walking down Oscar’s red carpet.

So why is political obsession any different? Because focusing on politics rather than policy is a gross disservice to the public interest. Politics isn’t a game, like football, where it’s over when the when the last whistle blows. The end result of politics is the election of people who are supposed to deal with and resolve important public issues.

Immigration, for example. Ten to 15 million people are living in legal limbo. They are building homes, washing office floors, day-caring kids and generally leading productive, law-abiding lives.

Immigration is a REAL problem affecting not only those millions but the entire U.S. economy and social fabric. The current impasse threatens kids who were brought here by parents and have known no other homes. It splits families. It harms our agricultural industry which needs skilled farm workers. It blocks talented tech workers from joining U.S. companies. It compromises law enforcement.

But to read about immigration mostly is to read about how the politics of a new law might help Democrats or bring down the wrath of radical Republicans on GOP incumbents in Republican primaries.

Isn’t the point of politics supposed to be to elect people who will deal with such problems, not treat them merely as fodder for the next TV commercials?

And how about health care? Isn’t how the nation provides medical and hospital care a HEALTH issue? And if it is a HEALTH issue, shouldn’t the public conversation be more about health than politics?

Minimizing personal health risks with adequate insurance for more Americans has been on the national agenda nearly every year since Harry Truman was President. It’s been there because we have real problems that don’t go away when ignored. If the Affordable Care Act were totally repealed tomorrow, those problems would still be there.

That’s hardly the conversation we’re having. It’s all about Republicans using “Obamacare” to beat up Democrats in 2014, and whether that will work as well as it did in the 2010 elections. Politics, not policy.

The media plays along because of its political obsession and because it’s so much easier for a reporter to cover political attacks than it is to learn enough about the health system to write knowledgeably about what’s happening to people outside the political bubble.

National debates taking center stage should be about immigration, health, climate change, how to get our crumbling infrastructure back on track, job growth, the consequences of the trade treaties being negotiated by the White House, educational enhancement----issues that impact lives far more directly than whether some Iowa precinct captain has signed on for Rick Santorum in 2016.

I didn’t care in January, 2013 when the first polls appeared about the 2016 election. I don’t care now. In fact, if we weren’t politically crazed, we wouldn’t care until 2016. Good grief! President Obama still has three years remaining in the White House. He wasn’t re-elected just to hold a Lombardi trophy until the next winning team comes along.

Enough with the 2016 polls and speculation about who comes next. Let the fear and scare mongers who make fortunes whipping up our frustrations on radio and cable do what they do. After all, they’re only talking to their converted anyway. We’ve always had political fringe movements. Every country does.

But for the rest of us, if the mainstream media would stop enabling political gamesmanship and focus more on policy than politics we might actually be able to improve both.

(Joe Rothstein can be contacted at joe@einnews.com)