Where'd the issues go?

Oh wait, they're still there. But the candidates seem to be too busy attacking each other to talk about them.

This part of the election season is always incredibly frustrating to me. My normal obsession with political commentary has quieted down, because I keep reading the same insults over and over (on both sides) and see so little substance. One ray of light in this whole process, for me at least, has been a wonderful book called See How They Run: Campaign Dreams, Election Schemes, and the Race to the White House. It's a long-ish (90 pg) picture book written for late elementary/early middle schoolers, and it's fantastic. 

It's not the sugar-coated stuff that most political children's books are (yes, I've read a few - my kids are going to think democracy is pretty rad)...the authors are very clear that every president has had his (and hopefully one day her) flaws.  It then describes the process of running for president in impressive detail for a book of this genre.  

As I was reading it the other day, I read a little nugget that made me reflect on the current race:

"At their best, campaigns alert us to what's important.  They tell is what a candidate believes.  They also make us think about where we stand.  And, they help us understand why others hold a different point of view."

This is certainly what a campaign should be, at it's best.  Perhaps that's too much to hope for in a climate as polarized as the one we currently live in.   However, as the book reminds me, "Democracy is a messy business and it's our job to sort it out."  What an incredible privilege and responsibility we have.