Exploring the Question: Has American Politics Gone Insane? | Political Pundit Night

It’s funny how your sense of time changes as you get older. In my head, this whole “going on the internet and saying stuff” thing is pretty new, but I’ve actually been at it for a while. My first gig on Coleman and Company was, unbelievably, about five years ago, and Stars End: A Foundation Podcast is over three years old!

There’s a bit of a gap. That first gig on Coleman and Company was in September 2019, just as the 2020 Election was heating up. I was unable to Join Dr. Coleman and his Company again until March 2023, about three-and-a-half years later. When Steve asked me to pitch in again and told me the topic was “Has American Politics Gone Insane,” I couldn’t say “no.” The new status quo is a very different format than my first appearance, with many more voices; looking at the Zoom screen I felt like I was on Hollywood Squares. It was also two hours long instead of thirty minutes. This allowed us to explore the question with more depth.

You can watch the first hour right here.

My favorite bit might have been in Steve Sprague’s opening statement (and I’m paraphrasing here) where he opined that perhaps American politics aren’t clinically insane, but it sure seems like a bunch of people have rabies and a bunch of other people are in a cult. My short answer to the question was “Of course it has,” but ultimately I am more interested in the cure than the mere diagnosis.

If you’re interested in finding my bits, I’m at about 22 minutes and 49 minutes in hour one.

Here’s the second hour.

In hour two, about six minutes in, Steve asks “Has journalism let the American people down?” An interesting discussion ensues. This is all the more relevant as we saw in the recent Biden/Trump debate that some national news organizations are not fact-checking the candidates in real-time. The conversation winds through the weaponizing of journalism, court cases against major cable news outlets, and the War on Woke. It continued into the balkanization of the American public into political camps. We wrap the hour up on some fundamental structural issues like how we vote and gerrymandering. I pop up at 20:30, 25:15, 44:20, 55:05, 55:55, and 57:55 but all of those need some context.

This was a great group of people to have this conversation with! I’m honored to have been included and even happier to have become a regular contributor. The next Political Pundit Night is at 7:00 pm EDT on 15 August 2024 and can be found on <MyTwinTiers.com/coleman-and-company>.

The images and videos above are the property of WETM-TV and <MyTwinTiers.com>.

I like trying things I haven’t done before. A few years ago I got my one and only speeding ticket and I attended the court date. I’d never been to court before and it was interesting.

About two weeks ago, Steve Coleman, who was a Vice-President at Elmira College, invited me to be a guest on his local public affairs program. Steve’s been doing this sort of thing for years as a self-styled “Ph. D. of Politics.” Coleman and Company is now a weekly half-hour webcast that appears on Sunday evenings on MyTwinTiers.com, the website for the local WETM-18 news. Steve puts together an interesting show and it’s worth checking out.

And this isn’t just something new, this is something I’ve always wanted to try. I’m a politics junkie and I’ve been watching things like the McLaughlin Group or Face the Nation or The Rachel Maddow Show for years. I’ve done my share of groaning at the teevee and doing armchair punditry inside my own brain (“Eleanor! Pat’s just trying to wind you up! Don’t take the bait!!”). I always thought it looked like fun.

If you’re at all curious, the process was straightforward. Steve e-mailed his plan for the show to us on Sunday with an update on Tuesday so we’d know what to expect: presidential politics, impeachment, Iran, and then our own chance to sound off on something.

I was probably over-prepared. Joanne and I showed up at the studio about a half hour before we were set to tape on Thursday. We got to meet Denis Kingsley, the other guest, who is a real gentleman. Seeing the inside of the studio reminded me of my trip to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. The tour took us through Mission Control and standing in these spaces is utterly unlike what you’d expect.

We took our places and started the taping; taped, incidentally, “before a live studio audience” thanks to Joanne.

I probably should have cut Eleanor some slack. A lot of the stuff I’d thought about beforehand got left on the table because it was nowhere in my brain to be found when I needed it. I guess my biggest missed opportunity was after Denis asserted that Elizabeth Warren would be unelectable if she got the nomination. I should have pointed out that the person the Democrats really wanted to run against in 1980 was Ronald Reagan; they thought he’d be easy to beat. And no one seemed to honestly believe that Donald Trump could get the Republican nomination much less win the presidency in 2016. Some folks remained in denial until the electoral college actually voted. That, too, is why we have elections.

But this was a lovely experience. It was great fun and I really have to thank Steve for the opportunity. Unlike traffic court, I’d happily do this again.

So now I’m a bona fide “political analyst and commentator.” Coleman and Company featuring yours truly in the role of “company” is available on TwinTiers.com.