I first published a version of this blog in 2016.  Sadly, it seems even more true today. 

The human impulse, when confronted with a train wreck or a car crash, is to stop and stare. A few heroes may run in to try to help, but most people just watch, unsure what to do.

The current American presidential contest is just such a disaster, and most of us are watching, mouths open, knowing that something awful is happening, uncertain what to do about it. Of course, given the powerful political forces and huge amounts of money at work, there’s little the average person can do. Except vote. So I very much hope that you will vote your conscience on November 3th. Don’t use the tawdriness of the campaign as an excuse for you not to do the right thing.

Growing up, I was taught that it was not right, when you were caught out doing something wrong, to try to blame someone else. That was cowardly. I was taught that if little fibs were occasionally permitted (dinner was delicious, Dad!), making stuff up wholesale was not. That was and is known as lying and it was and is wrong. And I was taught that meanness of comment about another human being revealed a meanness of spirit – yours.

All of that, and more, is daily fodder for the current presidential campaign. And that’s bad enough. But what’s really wrong with the current debate is that nothing useful or of substance is being said about important issues of the day.

We have some truly intractable and difficult problems facing our country and the world today. We need to have a vigorous debate about what to do about them. We need to develop some answers that involve both parties and the entire political spectrum.

That’s not happening now. For the country and its problems, this presidential campaign is an expensive waste of time – in the middle of a catastrophic pandemic, no less.  If ever there was a time when you might imagine serious debate could take place, it’s now, when a 1,000 people are dying in the US alone – every day.

We have complicated challenges, lots of real human suffering, and a desperate need for a vigorous debate and our best thinking about how we might help solve this problem. What are we getting instead?

Character assassination.

The Ancient Greeks, who knew a thing or two about oratory, pointed out that when your opponent changed the subject and attacked you personally, it was called an ad hominem attack, and it was not a logical refutation of your point of view.

It was just character assassination. And it was despicable.

Today, it’s virtually all that’s left of political discourse. But that doesn’t make it any less despicable.

Politics has become more and more trivial as the challenges facing our country and world have become more and more dire. How can we turn the public discourse back to become once again a substantial, useful dialogue?

Vote tomorrow, if you haven’t voted early already, and stake your claim in the future of the US, democracy’s survival, and a cogent public discourse.