“Most people know more about their congressmen via smear campaigns than they know about their own neighbor via conversations, and a lot of people know more about Britney Spears via tabloids than they know about their own congressmen via voting booklets. Does anyone else see the problem here?”

(-; sad but, far too true

Whenever I hear someone quoting stats on their favorite quarterback or point gaurd, I always ask them something like...are you aware that the government is passing laws to disarm you?

The medias are becoming tabloids-and a lot of nuts actually believe what they hear or read!

As goofy as Britney Spears is, she would probably be far less dangerous to the country than the likes of Pelosi, Franks, Reed, Boxer, and the rest of that ilk.

Is this guy actually complaining about this being a free country, if that is what most people are doing then I would assume that is what they freely choose to do. I watch C-Span for both entertainment and information. No commercials either. I give a two for probably some truth but withhold three for this guys blatant attack on the freedom to choose of his fellow Americans. He really probably has no idea what most people are doing and he is just a judgemental looking down his nose at others SOB.

Sure, it's a free country, but that doesn't negate our own freedom to criticize the people's lack of attention to their higher social moral obligations for populist drivel and tabloids. People, in return, can ignore or react to the criticism - that is their freedom as well. The Greeks were said to have encouraged sporting events to focus male energy somewhere outside the body politic, so that politicians wouldn't necessarily bear the full light of public scrutiny. If a student procrastinates their paper beyond the due date because they were busy applying themselves to the latest gossip (friends, movies, tabloids, or entertainment venues), this does not change the outcome of using their freedom to choose something other than their obligation of studying for or writing the paper. They fail, and that is the consequence of their freedom. Today, the majority of Americans know more about Britney Spears than they know their representative's voting record. This is arguably neither good nor bad -- they simply have used their freedom and time to explore hobbies and interests away from the body politic. If the American political body fails to ensure liberty and freedom to the people, then it is the people's fault -- in a Constitutional Republic -- to not have seen, addressed, and fixed the problem early on because they were using their freedom to explore other opportunities.

Good Point Logan, well said.

Logan, I agree, well said. If you don't keep a man (woman) distracted, they might actually stop to think of reality rather than the mindtrap called entertainment or for what is most simply escapism from the facts of life.

Freedom means Responsibility. If we do not tend to the abuses of power and allow ourselves to be misdirected while our representatives raid the Treasury then we are left not knowing why we are in the mess we are in -- and we let our oppressors tell us it was the other guy. Bread and circuses, my friend, one of the oldest ploys in the politicians book -- why skeptism of government is poo-pooed upon is because we forget that populist media's real purposed is to 'sell' us their ideas and condition us to pay for our servitude.