Someone asked me this week what I thought about the upcoming primaries. Upcoming? I thought they were last month.
The question, although confusing, sums up about everything wrong with our political system today. Because our system of politics isn't about how we efficiently operate a government that meets its people's needs.
Our system is about entertainment and nothing else. How else could a notoriously crooked businessman turned reality-tv icon win a presidential election?
It's because millions of people turn their personal brain-washing machine on to some 24 hour Newsy channel first thing in the morning and never leave the glow of its LED screen.
Those people believed that guy firing those C-List personalities was an actual titan of industry when he was really just the punchline to every joke told about spoiled rich brats.
Now two and a half years into a starring role at the White House all he's done is proven the point. The guy who won over the Klan crowd with his Birther tweets has at least been consistent. Truth and non-German skin tones are still the banes of his existence.
Our 24/7 news cycle should be renamed for what it really is, the soaps. There's a cliff hanger every hour, there are melodramatic scenes of woe followed by cholesterol drug commercials, and there are overpaid actors manufacturing emotions quicker than the producer can whisper "tears now" in their ear.
Nobody told Walter Cronkite to wipe his eyes when Kennedy was killed. What Walter stood for died a long time ago.
There's really no reason people should be seriously considering candidates for an election cycle that is a year away. We might find it amusing that there are enough Democrats running for president at this early juncture to field an entire football team, but do we really need to know which one is popular in Iowa?
Does anyone not in Iowa really need to care about anything at all in Iowa? Junior high students should know where it is on a map but that's about it.
Knowing Joe Biden is popular in Iowa is about as earth shattering as finding out champagne is popular in France. Can you say duh?
I'm gonna bet Biden and Bernie are popular in New Hampshire, too, speaking of small homogenized states you can't name one person from. It's only 8 months until they hold their primary and they've predicted the eventual Democratic presidential candidate only 5 of the last 11 cycles.
So should we pay attention to a place that's right less than half the time? It's still way better than Trump's truth meter.
While the Democrat party side looks like a carnival tent with a circular firing squad, always good TV, the Republican side is as interesting as glue drying.
Twenty something candidates might be vying for the soul of the Democratic party, but only one candidate will fight for the Republican nomination. They found the perfect guy who represents everything they stand for.
He think he owns their soul, too. But he's just the delivery man.