With Caitlyn Jenner Pondering Senate Run, We Have to Ask When This Political Circus Will End

This is the article that I ran into yesterday, which got me on the whole topic of the political circus that the United States seems to be completely taken by.

When I thought about it some more, however, perhaps it seemed more inevitable than anything else. After all, if there is one thing that this country has become, it is that it is completely obsessed with celebrity culture. Everything and everyone has to be famous, at least anything and anyone worth any consideration. That seems to be the underlying message, although it is rarely expressed outright, as that would seem harsh and excessively judgmental to most people's ears.

Still, some truths are nevertheless rarely if ever stated outright, and in America today, the obsession with celebrity culture and so-called reality television (which bares very little resemblance to the actual reality that most people live) has taken over. Perhaps a sign of the times, when I was working for the Guardian Liberty Voice, it was hard not to notice the unfortunate trend that articles of substance rarely received many views, while articles about celebrities - particularly the Kardashians - regularly received tons of views. Since our pay was related to how many views each article received, it was perhaps understandable that some of these writers would focus on celebrity culture. 

However, the problem is that the more you feed this particular beast, the more normalized this circus becomes. Case in point, we now have a reality television star who has been elected president, with absolutely no qualifications The only thing that he really had going for him was his fame and his fortune. 

Now, he has been president for half a year, and he is showing just how unqualified he is for the job. He claimed he would come up with a healthcare plan that would cover everyone, and would basically be satisfactory to everyone. Instead, he lent his name and support to three disastrous bills, each of which would have seen more than 20 million Americans lose their healthcare. The most recent one, which just died yesterday when two Republican senators announced that they would vote no (and McConnell and the Republicans had zero votes to lose) had 15 percent approval rating by Americans, although that was not stopping Trump and the GOP from trying to impose it on Americans. Now, Republicans want to pursue repealing Obamacare, and will try to replace it later. For that matter, Trump has humiliated himself and disgraced the nation with his poor conduct with other world leaders. The whole world was disgusted when he announced that he was withdrawing the United States from the Paris Accord, and he was so presumptuous, that he seemed to seriously believe that other nations would rework this already signed and binding agreement to make the exception for America. Almost immediately, numerous world leaders confirmed their own commitment to the Paris Accord, and clearly rejected any possibility of making an exception for Donald Trump or the United States. Numerous world leaders of allied nations also made clear that they no longer feel that they can rely on the United States.

Talk about poor leadership. That is the exact opposite of the strong leadership that many Trump supporters insisted he would bring to the office. 

Unfortunately, though, we live in a time when people believe whatever they want to believe. Facts do not seem to matter in this age of "alternative facts." And so, despite the overwhelming evidence that Trump is every bit as bad as his detractors predicted he would be, he nonetheless continues to be given a free pass by his supporters.

And since he is viewed as a success, it seems to be inspiring other celebrities without qualifications to run for high office, as well. Kid Rock appears to be getting ready to make a run for Congress, and now, so apparently is Caitlyn Jenner. 

Jenner is, of course, a Kardashian. And let us remember that the Kardashians have thrived on the basest, lowest common denominator kind of popular culture. Frankly, I am not even entirely sure what they are famous for, other than being sex objects. But they are "reality tv" stars, and in today's America, that apparently qualifies them to believe that they could and should pursue high political office. You know, because that has worked so well thus far.

To the extent that Americans collectively take a strong interest in politics at all, it almost always winds up being fluffy and no serious. Having these celebrities add themselves into the mix of what really is a rotating circus act is just par for the course. It is certainly a symptom of the dumbing down of America, and it's continuation is contributing to this process continuing and gaining momentum.

Right now, it is not a stretch to believe that we have the dumbest leader in the world, and certainly the most narcissistic and out of touch with his own people. That very well may have been the case when George W. Bush occupied the White House, as well. This is a trend that we need to end, because it has contributed to the deterioration of both our reputation and our ever declining standard of living, which used to be the envy of the world.

Enough is enough already. Let us please put the clown show behind us already!

Caitlyn Jenner considers running for Senate By Mark Moore July 16, 2017

http://pagesix.com/2017/07/16/caitlyn-jenner-considers-running-for-senate/