Ready for Real Issues Yet?

http://blog.nj.com

What do Iraq, Iran, McCarran-Ferguson/health-care reform, and an exploding national debt have in common?

To varying degrees they are the biggest problems facing most Americans today, whether they realize it or not. Another thing they have in common is that both political conventions chose to ignore attacking these issues in favor of attacking each other and the media.

Iraq and Afghanistan are still claiming American lives even if they've disappeared from the mainstream media radar.

If foreign intelligence agencies can still be believed then an attack on Iran is imminent.

Problems like health care reform are allowed to fester because entrenched interests benefit from a broken system that operates for their gain over society's. Common sense solutions are not only discouraged but marginalized when even broached.

The official national debt accelerates apace while additional promises of Social Security and many pensions go unfunded. When those IOUs get brought in for payment the dollar will collapse.

To the extent these issues were even mentioned during the conventions it was in the context of trivializing their importance or giving the appearance that they were under control. So we are led to believe that the surge worked, that tax breaks will somehow allow everybody to have health coverage, and that these economic 'downturns' are just cyclical and to expect a 'soft landing'.

The only point of agreement that I had with the convention speeches is that the other party and the media are derelict. Both Democrats and Republicans have betrayed this country by distracting it and the media has been complicit in not exposing what they see as the truth, on camera.

Because of this emphasis on personality over substance I still know nothing more about what any candidate intends to do if elected, other than respond to events, than I did two weeks ago. And with the electoral process we've had foisted upon us, I don't expect the next two months to offer any insights.