In 1996, at the Chicago convention that renominated Bill Clinton, the party was in lock-step. Meanwhile, during their primary campaigns and national conventions, GOP stalwarts have done little more than calibrate their conservative positions. Many journalists have added to the de-politicizing of politics by focusing on the personalities of leading politicians. For the past year, enormous quantities of print space and air time have been devoted to analyzing the individual tendencies of movers and shakers in Washington. Political actors, on Capitol Hill and in the White House, dominate a national arena that routinely seems devoid of discourse.
Scripted performances can be entertaining, whether in a theater or on the nightly news.
But merely watching the nation's political dramas unfold is a lousy substitute for helping to create the future. When members of the House and Senate took curtain calls for their roles in the impeachment drama, they voiced eagerness to finally get back to work on solving the country's problems. And a lot of journalists echoed those sentiments. But the real solutions won't come from the customary actors in media-defined dramas. It's time for people in the audience to move beyond passive acceptance.