Great piece by Charles Blow this morning: Focus, People!.
"Like kittens chasing a spot of light on the floor, the public and the press are jumping about with excitement and outrage over ancillary issues....
It is about the size and function of government in our lives — whether we value social safety nets or social Darwinism.
It is about how the government collects and spends money and whether those activities are ruled by a spirit of fairness or disproportionately favor the most well off.
It is about whether rhetoric criticizing the size and influence of government ends where individuals’ bodies begin. Whether you believe, as I do, that all liberty begins with personal liberty. That none of us has the right to impose our beliefs and values on others. That each of our bodies is sovereign, to be governed as we so choose, without the interference of government, so long as our individual choices don’t impede or encumber the liberty of others.
This is about each of us being able to love, and marry, whomever we chose.
This is about women having unfettered and unfiltered access to a full range of reproductive options, which is most fundamentally about the physical and economic well-being of both them and their families.
This is about how we prioritize and provide direction and incentives for our educational system so that we produce citizens who are well equipped to compete in a tightening global job market.
When you consider the gravity of the real issues, the minor ones drift away like the seeds of a dandelion.
This is about the judges the winner of the election would nominate, particularly to the Supreme Court, and how those nominations might balance or further skew the justice system.
This is about war philosophies: how easily a president is willing to commit troops to war, how he might execute a war once it commences and how willing he is to end it.
It is also about whether we will deal humanely with people who are in this country illegally, many of whom have been here for decades, many of whom work and are otherwise law abiding, many of whom have been raised and educated here."
It is all too easy to get distracted from the vital by the trivial.