If you ask people if they believe Washington politicians are living in a bubble in our Nation's Capital, you will receive a variety of replies, "Sure" and "Absolutely" and "They know nothing about real Americans" and "They are completely out of touch".
You know how it goes.
Now, I'm sure the argument of political insularity can be made, but I'm more inclined to think that the coziness of Washington and the lure of being close to the actual Seats of Power may have more to do with the perception of the Washington Bubble than it's actual reality.
After all, they do have to get out of DC occasionally, if only to get re-elected so they can come back to bask in K-Street's alluring glow.
No. I want to address a different bubble. And perhaps a more insidious one.
Amongst the ever fragmenting media landscape in which live, any politician can find a friendly outlet to announce his new "exciting legislation".
And for GOP types those outlets are programs like James Dobson's "Family Talk" and Bryan Fischer's gig on AFA radio and wherever there is a microphone with Tony Perkins from the FRC behind it.
These programs are actually Big Religious Bubbles where pols of varying intellectual stripes from Governor Mike Pence to Senator Rand Paul to Senator Ted Cruz to Representative Michele Bachmann of the United States House of Representatives of the United States to former Partial Governor Sarah Palin can get on the air and utter their complete BS without any push back.
"Death panels in Obamacare" - Of course there are.
"Our Religious Freedoms are under attack" - Yes! We have to do something about that.
"Reparative Therapy works" - You are so right Mrs Bachmann!
"Climate Change is a myth and any Federal regulations are insidious intrusions into States' Rights". And on and on and on.
And if there are callers on these shows.....they are all sycophantic ass-kissers whose sole purpose is to reinforce to the politicians that their Groundbreaking Proposals are....Groundbreaking and REALLY REALLY NECESSARY.
Oh yes. They are so necessary. And thank you Governor/Senator/Dog Catcher for bringing up this important problem. After all at the end of the day, it's "All About The Children".
And eventually all this sycophancy and all this self-congratulatory back slapping with no-one uttering a single probing question, yields us RFRA laws.
Laws that are unnecessary and very very divisive.
So actually, though I do think politicians get out of the Washington Bubble, what we have to ensure is they don't just step into the Religious Bubble when they do.
