The problem, no doubt, with constitutional government is that it requires study and application both on the part of those who seek and hold office and those who decide with their votes who actually gets to exercise power. A sound byte -- the phrase wasn't around in 1990 -- won't do the job. Nor the jokes of late-night comics about mental acuity and comically erring husbands. Nor the incessant beating of long-dead horses.
What the candidates, and their campaigns, and the media and the blogs, owe us, in fact, is straightforward discussion of philosophical and policy differences -- those differences, this particular year, being especially large and meaningful.
Some of us who have been around at least since the Williams-Richards tussle of 1990 aren't holding our breath -- finding, at our age, breath to be a more priceless commodity than we once supposed. We hope for the best. We've learned not to expect a lot in terms of direct enlightenment concerning the policy choices lying before us. .
This democracy business, and what the voters do with it, sure is fun. It's also deeply, hugely, painfully, sometimes depressingly serious. The reason I just said that is that no one else seems likely to this year.
Bill Murchison
Bill Murchison is the former senior columns writer for
The Dallas Morning News and author of
There's More to Life Than Politics.
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©Creators Syndicate
©Creators Syndicate