* Fear Of Offending Anyone: Because politicians are always thinking about the next election instead of actually serving the people who put them into office, they're terrified of actually doing anything that might offend someone. In today's society, where whole organizations full of people make a living by pretending to be perpetually offended -- what that means is it takes a small measure of courage, one that most politicians don't seem to have, in order to do almost anything.

They are terrified to put an end to illegal immigration because that might offend Hispanics. They can't call for an end to Affirmative Action, which is a racist policy that discriminates against white people, because that might offend blacks. They can't say anything nice about the Boy Scouts because that might offend gays. They can't point out that the problem with our schools isn't funding, it's the teacher's unions, because they'll be accused of hating children. They can't point out that wind, solar, ethanol, and the other alternative fuels that every politician in America seems to tout are, at least for the moment, technological jokes that can't come close to replacing oil because they'll offend the environmentalists. They can't point out that Muslims are more likely to engage in terrorism than anyone else because they'll be accused of hating Muslims.

One of the reasons that the American people are so cynical about politicians is because there are so many obvious truths that politicians won't delve into out of fear of offending anyone. It gets old.

* Politics Not Stopping At The Water's Edge: There's nothing wrong with disagreeing with your political opponent's foreign policy, but there is a problem when you put your petty political concerns ahead of the good of the country.

When we have politicians going to hostile foreign nations and saying things that can be used as propaganda against us, that's a bridge too far. When we have former U.S. Presidents criticizing the United States overseas or slamming our own allies for cooperating with us, that is reprehensible. When we have government employees in the CIA collaborating with members of the mainstream media to try to undercut our foreign policy via leak of sensitive classified documents, that should be treated as scandalous.

Love of country should come before petty political concerns and that has ceased to be the case for too many people in D.C.

* The Lying And Inauthenticity: Campaigns in the United States have become exercises in trying to be "everything to everybody." Everybody is a hunter, everybody loves NASCAR, everybody is a diehard Christian, nobody is pro-abortion, everybody wants border security, everybody wants to see the deficit balanced, everybody respects our 2nd Amendment rights, everybody respects the Constitution -- what piffle!

If everyone actually believed all those things, we'd be running a surplus instead of a deficit, there would be no fights over judges, and the border would be secure already.

Granted, politics has never been the most honest profession, but when even people who support a particular candidate admit that they're backing a shameless liar, it's clear that integrity in politics has slid way too far down the hillside.

* Crazed Hyperbole: On the Left, comparisons of Bush to Hitler and wild claims that the United States is a fascist dictatorship have become so commonplace as to be blasé.

Allegations nearly as vile and most certainly as false -- like the United States invaded Iraq for oil and the 2000 and 2004 elections were rigged -- have become so ordinary that they could fairly be said to constitute mainstream thought on the Left.

It's not surprising that people have unkind things to say about their political opponents, but when it gets as over-the-top as it has been during the Bush and Clinton presidencies, it is not healthy for the country.

* Fake Objectivity From The Media: If Townhall claimed it was a neutral outlet despite having all rightward leaning pundits and having a staff that's almost wholly conservative, would anyone believe them? Of course not. But, mainstream media outlets -- where Democrats outnumber Republicans 10 to 1, liberals dominate the Op-ED pages, and the news is heavily slanted against conservatives -- regularly claim to be unbiased.

That's what drives people so crazy about the mainstream media: it's that they're every bit as biased as the people in talk radio and the blogosphere, but they try to pretend that they're not.

No wonder everyone hates and distrusts the mainstream media in this country. How could it be otherwise when they tell such boldfaced lies to the American public about their objectivity?

* Mainstreaming Conspiracy Theories: Off-the-wall crazy has become just another form of political expression.

On the Right, we've got goofballs who think the United States is about to be secretly merged with Canada and Mexico, presumably over the objections of the American people, Congress, and the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, on the Left, it's not unusual to hear people accusing the Bush administration of deliberately launching airplanes and missiles into our buildings in order to start a war that will make Halliburton a few extra bucks.

This sort of amazingly stupid drivel is written by prominent columnists and posted in the most influential mainstream magazines and blogs on the Right and Left. Continued...