TOWNHALL.COM: It was sad, watching the two remaining contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination engage in a civil little sparring match Thursday night. Because it was hard not to note, once again, the long slow decline of political debate in this country since Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas thought out and fought out the great issues of their day. Those were real debates rather than a joint press conference.
I would rather have heard less from my colleagues in the ever-intrusive media and more from the candidates themselves. It would be a step up if the press weren't involved in these productions at all except to report and comment on them. Matters were better arranged in the series of seven great debates between Mr. Lincoln and Judge Douglas in 1858.
But it is useless to dream of returning to that style of political engagement. Man, homo faber, doesn't just shape his tools, they in turn shape his mind. And our technology, in this case, television, long ago turned presidential debates into a contest between competing applause lines. Result: Instead of thought, we get sound bites. Words, Words, Words: The Decline of American Eloquence >>> By Paul Greenberg
Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)
