Here is a question worth...

turning over in your mind...
Is the American punditariat simply tired of democracy?
I mean when was the last time Frank Rich or Bill Safire had a new idea to share with us?
Granted I have the limited view of the whole process (chiefly the Imus program and certain newspapers)....and no doubt everyone is tired calling into Imus in the early morning hours but...I do detect a certain civilization ending element of weariness among our "public intellectuals".
They've been wrong and adamantly so about so many things, from balancing the budget, Clinton's impeachment. to Gore's alleged personality flaws up to and including George Bush version 2.0.
Normally anyone else who amasses a record of failure like that is headed for an early retirement...but not our chattering classes failure not only is an option, it's no impediment to success.
But it's a volume heavy repetitive job though, the same opinions all the time ad nauseum.
After a while regurgitating the same old arguments and giggling at the inevitable cutting remarks has to take it's toll.
It's perishingly hard work being the public's only reality filter for democratic politics....if you interpret events long enough I think they all start to look alike....a level of familiarity that must breed contempt for democracy.
Of course, the punditariat's compulsive Bush worship doesn't help matters any....the Matthews, Imus', Barnicles or Russerts of this world have marked out so hard for Bush they are de facto accomplices of the Admin by now.
So not only are they contemptuous of democracy (if only subconsciously) they are locked in with GWB for the duration.
My own suspicion is most of these guys would be happy to live in a dictatorship as long as they belonged to the dictating class. Most of what they do now is little more than propaganda on a daily basis.
It wasn't always like this, in the so called good old days mass political parties interpreted events, organized voting blocks and controlled nominations. The parties weren't wholly democratic but they couldn't afford to ignore common sense and public sentiment either. The punditariat had comparatively little influence over the process....nowadays television and television commentators make or break candidates.
The parties are little more than fund raising mechanisms that must go on bended knee with baskets of cash to the TV networks...in such a situation the power of the punditariat becomes near absolute.
And clearly sheer exhaustion has set in among our opinion makers.
So what happens when the chattering class decides democracy is a joke?
You tell me?
Ah dunno.