Commentary: Am I seeing a mirage?

Perhaps I’ve lived in the Arizona desert too long! I’m wondering if what I’m seeing is for real. I’m talking about politics, and check this out:

The announcement by rap star Kanye West that he’ll seek the presidency in 2020 is the final proof in the pudding that, somewhere along the American way, the country has lost its grip on political sanity.

There’s a huge field of political participants. This group propels the spectacle that is currently posing as a presidential campaign or the gamesmanship in Arizona around immigrants and children.

This baby boomer thought he had seen every political peccadillo possible, but it’s now as clear as a mirage that today anything goes in politics and that reason and accountability are the casualties.

One commentator noted that we had this craziness coming — when politics, aided and abetted by the media and reality TV, crossed the line into entertainment. It’s now one big circus with drumrolls, smoke and mirrors.

But maybe it’s a mirage. Maybe the degradation of public debates pleases the audience and I’m simply out of touch with the new normal, that this is what democracy unleashed looks like: chaotic, participatory, unproductive, but extremely entertaining.

I think of the level of poverty in this country; the disinvestments in our children; I am bewildered by the superficial content of political debates and the sideshow issues that distract the public. I’m appalled by the inclination of firebrand politicians to redefine constitutional principles, and fuel an already explosive climate of hate and intolerance.

I wonder when and if we'll recover from this downward spiral and restore our sense of the good society. But then, maybe, it’s a mirage.