Democracy of an irrational mob

The most serious problem in American politics is that frank and intelligent discussion of important problems almost always gets drowned out by meaningless palaver, as David Nimmo and John Combs called it in their brilliant book on the subject, The New Propaganda: The Dictatorship of Palaver in Contemporary Politics. Meaningless and petty engagement that has much to do with attacking candidates, attacking parties, and attacking ideologies dominates contemporary political discussions, no matter how little good such communication has for improving or resolving important issues is the most important barrier to substantive progress on almost every policy issue that America and the world faces.