The Circus That Jack Built

Like you, I've been appalled by the dismal tone of current American political discourse. Egged on by an infotainment-driven media determined to push itself to the outer edges of squalid vacuity, U.S. aspirants to federal office have apparently been forced to embrace semantic inanition as an absolute pre-condition for their every rhetorical gesture. ABC's notorious Democratic "debate", which asked the candidates to dilate upon the patriotic necessity of wearing a flag pin on one's lapel (among many other crucial questions of public policy), provides but one instance of a society's hell-bent-for-election bungee-jump into a precocious civic senescence.

Wretched enough in itself, the decrepit present is doubly damned by the precious treasury of golden political moments from the past which the Internet (God bless its cyber heart) offers up to the bitter-sweet delectation of the nostalgic soul. To wit, the Youtube clip of John F. Kennedy which you'll find below.

Hearken to the oratorical splendour of a pre-sound-bite era. Listen as JFK provides a substantive, dignified engagement with key issues and an insightful, elegant deconstruction of his opposition. Enjoy.



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