You may think I'm calling out the excesses of the political parties or social media or the so-called mainstream media and the breakneck speed with which they all flood us with news. And you wouldn't be wrong. But the more subtle thing I'm calling out is us and what we do with that news.
Big news is breaking all the time (most of it not necessarily big). But even when truly big news does break (an assassination attempt on a former president, a current president bowing out of a re-election campaign) we tend to allow ourselves to accelerate past the actual news and move swiftly on to speculation about the consequences and ramifications.
Let's call this the punditfication of America. We no longer receive news as something to learn about but as something to opine about. We are all pundits, supposed experts, talking past each other. We leave what is too soon so we can be the first to have a hot take on what might be.
There is a LOT of campaign left before the November election (and a new cycle that begins the day after that). Maybe now is a good time to take a deep breath and try to pace ourselves.
Editor's note: John Auchter is a freelance political cartoonist. His views are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Public, its management, or its license holder, the University of Michigan.
