Given the debate in the media about politics, we appear no longer capable of returning to sanity or moderation or rational debate and compromise. Lines are being drawn more sharply. Opinions and prejudices hardening. Politicians are taking their cues from the polls and not what they believe is right. More and more people are looking at the lines and not the issues. The media focuses on what divides us, not what we have in common. And the gulfs are widening. Elections are approaching. Even sharper lines are being drawn. Doubt is settling in. Belief in a fair election process is eroding. The ideal of America as the land of the free is metamorphosing into the land of the most powerful and the loudest or those who can manipulate the system to their own advantage. Quiet debate and agreement to make a deal for the good of the country and are over. Ruthlessness, manipulation of raw political power and the bully pulpit are swamping the idea democracy. Now people will only be content with blood and lists of the dead who were willing to sacrifice themselves for the cause. Whatever that is. Ammunition is being stocked for what? Bloodshed? And after the bloodshed, what then? Enough.