A New Meet The Press

This might sound like political discourse, a subject I steer clear of due to my allergy to (select one, or--better yet, all--offal, debris, dreck,effluvium, junk, litter, garbage, rubbish, spilth, crud, sewage, slop, swill, wash; detritus, remains). Anyway, I just want to sound off on something. Why do TV producers (and, by extension all of us, since the producers are doing their best to provide content we want to consume so that they can sell commercials to people who want us to consume other stuff), so why do we continue to allow politicians to use up our precious time saying the same old thing to each other, and demonstrating their practiced abilities to ignore anything uttered by their opposite numbers? I mean, really, do I need to hear another Democrat complain that the rich aren't paying their share? Or a Republican say "no" to any adjustment of tax rules that might remotely be insinuated to be an increase in taxes? I am watching Sunday Morning, and Bob Schieffer comes on to tell me, excitedly, about the scheduled appearances on "Meet The Press" of one pol from each side of the Super Committee.

Speaking of which, what is so "Super" about anything Congress does these days? The imagery is about as bad as that of the "czars" Presidents have been appointing in ever-increasing numbers (sorry, you Republicans, that is not a slam against President Obama, in my lifetime, the first two "czars" were the drug and the energy czars, appointed by Richard Nixon). No, "Super" does not come to mind when I watch the pols at work or on TV.

But back to Bob Schieffer--I propose that no more politicians be invited to appear without a vigorously enforced set of ground rules. I don't have them all, but two or three come to mind--No Republican is allowed to object to an idea or position based on the notion that he or she is opposed to all new taxes. In turn, no Democrat is permitted to complain about one group of another not paying its fair share. Neither side may use the terms "class warfare" or "corporate greed." You are free to propose a few more ground rules, but it is my fervent hope that persons appearing on "Meet The Press" would begin to demonstrate the ability to 1) Think on their feet, 2)Listen and respond without evading the question, 3)Defend a position with reason and not rehearsed twaddle, .... Well, you get the idea, discourse.

Discourse, there's an overused term. Merriam-Webster, and I am not making this up, offers this as the definition of the term discourse--archaic : the capacity of orderly thought or procedure : rationality. They call that one "archaic," as in no longer in use. They must be watching "Meet The Press."