Jim Geraghty opined this morning that Joe Biden may be in far worse shape than we suspect – even now. That got me thinking about how deeply the media has failed us in this mess. The signs were there, but no one dug, no one pushed, cajoled, convinced and otherwise investigated. If the media failures are discussed, there will be much talk of partisanship on their part, and perhaps discussion of Donald Trump as some sort of existential threat to democracy. Yet here we are, one party with their credibility past the gutter and into the sewer system proper, and Donald Trump looking saintly in comparison. But why stop with media failures? Geraghty also points out that while Trump is younger than Biden he will reach octogenarian status while in office, assuming he wins this fall, and that the same fate could await him. Both parties seem to suffer, to differing extents, from a lack of younger talent – certainly talent that can get through the primaries. So, the media has failed us, the parties have failed us, perhaps even younger generations have failed us…

…which means we have to look at our educational system. And so it goes, we drill deeper and deeper until we sink into a pit of despair. (Perhaps the “slough of despond” for the more literary among us.)

We talk and we talk, we analyze, we comment, we praise and we condemn. And yet, it’s trite, but nonetheless true – Politics is downstream of culture. The fact that our politics is now deeply in crisis (Oh spare me, assassination attempts, and late date resignations definitely signals criticality on our political life) means that something is very, very broken in our culture. We need to shift our focus. To continue the metaphor, the political portion of the river is now so polluted that it cannot be cleaned up – we have to stop the pollution upstream, at its source, and let the nasty flow to the sea.

The path forward from this point does not lie int he Rules Committee of the DNC or the Trump campaign. The path forward from this point is not in Congress. And it sure as h*%% is not in more social media commentary or meme passing. The path forward starts in your living room, at your dining table, in your church, wherever it is you encounter others and they encounter you. Don’t complain about “them,” be better yourself.

Let’s go back to the river metaphor. I had the gross misfortune to live in Cleveland, OH (Anyone familiar with the host knows I should simply put a period there, but there is actually more to the story) in 1969, when the river caught on fire. The politics flowing from that event have been extraordinary, but it should be noted that the Cuyahoga River is now clean and beautiful. No longer does fishing in Lake Erie consist of walking the beach and picking them up as it did when I lived there. This did not happen overnight. It took decades.

The problems this nation now confronts are far, far too profound to be resolved soon, even in the next administration. This is a project of generations. A path forward starts with resolve and patience. Volunteering for a day at something is not going to cut it. Let’s stop watching media tell us how bad it is – let’s stop speculating about who is “the mastermind behind all the deception.” (Robert Bork had it right – we slouched here.) Let’s get busy.

Let’s be better.

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