The Insanity of Politics

So, Mitt Romney pushed down some boy and cut some of his hair off.  And this happened 47 years ago.  And this “proves” that he’s a bully?

I don’t know what it’s going to take to change this cycle of charge and response regarding ludicrous minutiae, but this latest “gotcha” about Romney is ample evidence, as if more were needed, that our political system is doomed unless it changes radically.  Radical, as in “from the roots”.

To me, it is absurd that this item is even carried by “mainstream media”; that it is constantly repeated and expanded upon; that it persists (lead story on at least two national TV news shows this morning); that anyone even CARES about this; and that some of the less intellectually endowed among us seem to think this “proves” that Romney is a bully.

It wasn’t that long ago that dreck like this was fodder only for the tabloids.  But, as has been demonstrated time and again, TV news isn’t news; it’s entertainment.

I don’t give two hoots in hell for Mitch Romney (around the house, I call him “Mike Rummy” to my wife) and have, as a parent, learned first-hand that bullying is not to be trivialized.  I’ll say this for Romney’s handlers: they have learned that the only way to deal with this crap is to acknowledge it without admitting to it (“I don’t remember the incident”), apologize, and then move on.

There will be the pundits who will say Romney’s apology was not sincere (Rachel Maddow and CNBC); the left will act as though this is the most offensive act ever perpetrated by one human being on another, and will theorize that this schoolyard scuffle set the pattern for a man who loves to fire (bully) people.  I’m waiting for somebody in Wisconsin to find someone to come forward and say Scott Walker bullied him in school, setting the pattern for Walker’s bullying of the public employee unions.

It’s been a great week in politics.  A man who’s now on his fourth wife, preaching to his national radio audience about the sanctity of marriage; the voters of the Badger state disrespecting women by electing a man to run against Walker (“it was Kathleen’s turn; she deserved to win”); and another GOTCHA moment regarding a candidate for national office.

Next thing you know, they’ll be telling us our city council members are TEXTING each other during those marathon council meetings, and we’ll have to get all riled up about “secret closed meetings” and whether those texts are different from a couple council members talking quietly to each other in the hallway outside the council meeting.

We are fiddling insanely while Rome burns.