The Politics of Distraction

… Pretty much every day someone (a candidate, or a campaign, or the media) will ‘‘hold up some bright, shiny object,’’ as Carly Fiorina put it on ‘‘Meet the Press.’’ That increasingly popular metaphor is an apt one, because the various images it conjures — an intergalactic body glowing brighter as it moves closer to dumbfounded earthlings, a ball on a string held by a hypnotist, a mobile hung above a baby’s crib — all, to varying degrees, seize attention, whether through their novelty or through manipulation. In politics, a shiny object is the preoccupation of the moment: the 14th Amendment, or so-­called birthright citizenship and anchor babies, or, inevitably, any poll. CONT.

Mark Leibovich, New York Times Magazine

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.