Too bad Americans are so easily diverted. Right now, it’s “silly season,” the period every four years when people take leave of their senses over a couple of issues and reveal their utter lack of understanding about the state of America, let alone their ignorance about our political system and how there’s so little difference between either candidate. Note the “breadth” of the topics touched on tonight.

Actually, most Americans don’t care at all about what happens in Washington. Politics has been handed over to the wealthiest, who decry current tax rates that are the lowest they’ve been in 70 years. In the land of the free, money talks and when you have money like the Koch Brothers, you can drive almost any debate. If you have been paying attention to the tea leaves, you know the train’s left the station, at least for this four-year cycle.

Concern for the circuses called professional sports—baseball, football, NASCAR—and all manner of diversions (mine is the NBA) pull our eyes away from the pressing issues, or maybe we just love the spectacle; they certainly provide some small measure of enjoyment in an economy that’s becoming harder to navigate all the time.

Then there is sex—or better, paying for sex. Nothing elevates a rural northeastern state more, and warrants Maine’s inclusion on the national stage like an overzealous Zumba instructor who films her workouts. I’m sure there will be an alternative narrative revealing she was a victim and just trying to release her inner fitness instructor. Google “Kennebunk” and see what it brings up.

Maybe this increased interest in Zumba will induce obese Americans into getting fit and adopting a healthier approach. Methinks Kennebunk’s most famous exercise advocate will titillate for a few weeks, and then there will be another similar story somewhere else, which the media will flitter off towards like moths to the flame.

I’m thinking that  leaders will want to add prostitution to the list that now includes casinos, prison privatization, the lottery, and pot dispensaries, catalyzing those overtaxed “job creators” among us.

Life rolls on, following patterns set in motion eons ago.