Got issues?

• Author: Glastris, Paul
• Position: Editor's Note - Presidential election

The stakes in almost any presidential election are immense. But they are not always clear. Eight years ago, for instance, the economy was strong, the country was at peace, and it was not at all obvious to a lot of voters that their choice for president in November would have much effect on this happy state of affairs. Many complained that there was not much difference between the candidates. Al Gore was seen as a cautious centrist, despite his sometimes-populist rhetoric. George W. Bush came off as a pragmatic conservative who would cut deals with Democrats, despite complaints by some--including, in my presence, then president Bill Clinton--that the Texas governor was far more right-wing than he let on.

Bush and Gore did, in fact, disagree on a range of issues. But the issues themselves, like what to do with the federal budget surpluses, lacked a sense of urgency. Voters simply couldn't have known how historically pivotal the election would turn out to be--pivotal because it would place George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in the White House on 9/11, and hence able to unleash all that followed. And so it was almost excusable that the race revolved around questions of character and personality and cultural resentment-about Al Gore's sighs and whether George Bush was someone you'd want to have a beer with.

This year, however, voters have no such excuse. The crises the next president will face are happening now: economic decline, financial market meltdowns, two intractable ground wars, an increasingly dysfunctional health care system. No one can possibly believe that there are no great issues at stake in this campaign, or that the candidates' distinctly different views on those issues somehow don't matter.

And yet, as I write, the race is being driven by questions of character and personality and cultural resentment, much to the benefit of John McCain and Sarah Palin. "This election is not about issues," said McCain campaign manager Rick Davis after the GOP convention. "This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates." To the extent that McCain and Palin do talk about policy, it is with stunning disregard for the truth and a swaggering assurance that their supporters, at least, do not mind.

The fact that the McCain ticket has benefited politically by abandoning honest discussion of policy is, of course, deeply depressing to anyone with a residual belief in the basic rationality of the American...