Politics or Policy?

I'd like to imagine that there was a time in our political system when there was at least balance between Politics and Policy. That politics was the effort required to show off the proposed policies of the candidate so that the voters could make the best choice. Obviously, each candidate believes (in my little dream world) that their policies are vastly superior to those of their opponent, and it's just a matter of informing the electorate.

Whether or not there ever was such a time, it is obviously not the case now. Some time ago, maybe around the advent of television and mass marketing, we slid from informing to the electorate to conning them. Tell the suckers we'll give 'em whatever they want, as long as they vote for us. Politics became estranged from policy. Do what it takes to get elected, so that you can implement your policies.

I wonder if we've slid down to a new level. Dan Quayle was the first blip. Is this guy really ready to run the country? Well, he's been in Washington for awhile, the Soviet Union is defeated, what the heck. Then George the Lesser, sure he's a C student, but he's just so darn folksy. And, hey, America is on top of the world economically, we're loved everywhere, what the hell. Now we're offered Caribou Barbie, a self-described pit-bull, who couldn't even graduate from my alma mater. But America's reputation is ruined, the economy is in the toilet, the planet's ecology is wrecked, and we're fighting wars against concepts. What the Fuck?!?

Have we just given up all pretense of policy? Is politics all there is? Are the Republicans really that cynical? Or are we that stupid? Ask yourself this:

If John McCain were already president and needed to choose his second-in-command; someone to help him run the most powerful nation on earth during one of the most complex times in it's history. Is this the person he would choose? Why? Ask yourself the same thing about Barack Obama.