Impoverishment of political debate

Domestic politics, partly under the influence of the media, is becoming so shallow, mean and meaningless that it is failing to produce the ideas and leadership needed to guide national policies in a rapidly changing world. Issues have in many cases become trivialized to the point where meaningful debate has become almost impossible. Government is increasingly crippled by a superstructure of politics that makes ideas harder to discuss and exalts public opinion over leadership. Politicians are encouraged to avoid hard issues which may affect their positions in opinion polls instead of responding to changes in the world, elected officials allow their thinking to be determined by the risk of televized attacks by their opponents, personal security by the press, cynicism on the part of the public, and the need (in some countries) to raise large sums of money to purchase television time to combat such criticism. When every decision is taken in this light, effective decision-making becomes severely constrained, stifling creativity and strong stands on major issues.