Strategists

More and more I change the channel when confronted with “debates” between Democratic and Republican “strategists.” They’re all over the place, on CNN, on MSNBC, and on Fox News. These shouting matches aren’t debates in any sense of the word, and the protagonists aren’t strategists, either. Let’s lay some foundation here:

Strategy – a carefully devised plan of action to achieve a goal, or the art of developing or carrying out such a plan.

Strategist – somebody who can develop and execute an effective strategy.

Does that describe Democrats Kirsten Powers, and Steve Murphy, or Republicans Don Sipple, and Karen Hanretty, strategists all? Not in a million years.

Logic – sensible, rational thought and argument. Is there anything in those exchanges that remotely brings that definition to mind?

How did we get here? I remember the erudite William F. Buckley. What a long way we have come from that standard of intellect and literacy.

After some research I’ve concluded that we are now three steps removed from rational discourse. Point Counter Point (1928) is where we begin, exploring with author Aldous Huxley the dichotomy between passion and reason. The novel is listed among the best 100 of the 20th century.

Fifty years later, the Point-Counterpoint segment of 60 Minutes, took us another step away from logic and rational thought with the relentlessly politically correct (before the invention of the term) Shana Alexander facing – but not engaging – the stridently right wing James J. Kilpatrick .

I’ll call the Saturday Night Live send up by Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd ("Jane, you ignorant slut!") a second step away from engaging in a substantial exchange of ideas. Admittedly, that’s unfair, since as parody it recognized, not perpetuated, the empty rhetoric. I like the symmetry, though. This is a blog, after all, not a New York Times Op Ed piece.

These debates between faux political strategists are our third step into inanity.

Inanity – meaninglessness or senselessness that suggests a lack of understanding or intelligence, silliness or foolishness, something such as a silly remark that demonstrates or suggests inanity.

Are you worried yet? You should be.