I can’t help thinking about how crazy our politics have become. Much of our time is spent debating crises that political parties make up to seize the spotlight and make the other party look bad. Too often these issues become the headlines, dominate commentary by TV “talking heads,” and provoke real and imagined hysteria among large numbers of the electorate. Tragically, this takes place while substantive issues that need attention get put aside, including pressing ones such as immigration reform, national infrastructure and transportation needs, and actions concerning serious foreign policy decisions.
Ask yourself, where did the phony issue about “critical race theory” go? For a while, that’s all we heard and many in the public got scared that their kids were being taught bad things about our country. This was because the Republicans ranted and repeated falsehoods about what it meant and who was teaching it.
Take the more recent attack on “bad” books that is being peddled by Republicans and MAGA junkies. Vigilante groups now scour school curricula, libraries and bookstores to ferret out undesirable stories and literature. Do you really buy into this? The same people who hide behind the First Amendment’s freedom of speech now want to squelch “book speech”!
Have they not read Ray Bradbury”s Fahrenheit 451?