Jonah Goldberg makes a great point in his Real Clear Politics essay: “There’s been a lot of hand-wringing over the spectacle of presidential candidates campaigning during Christmas thanks to the front-loaded primary schedule. But I like it. It provides a nice reminder of how unimportant politics really are“:
Washington pundits and politicians have a habit of equating America’s collective political mood with our feelings about our own lives. When Americans say the country is “on the wrong track” — as three-quarters of us now say — the pundits proclaim that Americans are in a “funk” or a “sour mood.” When approval ratings for Congress or the president are in the toilet, news reports call Americans “angry” and the climate “poisonous.” But walk along any American Main Street during Christmas week and you’ll find the atmosphere is hardly poisonous, the mood far from sour.
Obviously, dissatisfaction with the government is hugely important in political terms, and politics are significant. But Washington needs to get over itself. Very few people define their lives politically — a fact for which we should all be eternally grateful.
Or as Lily Tomlin once said, “Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working, honest Americans. It
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