OUR VIEW: Social media show political ignorance

After the debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney on Tuesday night, some of our editors hopped onto Facebook to see what friends and family were saying. They can honestly say they expected what they saw.
   
Captioned images littered our news feeds, mostly featuring ad-hominem remarks about the candidates, quotes taken out of context and questionable infographics from pages like “For America,” “American Patriots” and “Freedom Patriots for Patriotic Freedom of American Patriots.”
   
There were a few statuses that read, “Enjoyed the debate,” or, “Interesting debate,” but that was about it. Simply put, there was very little in terms of political thought on Facebook.
   
The candidates really didn’t present themselves in a way deserving of intelligent conversation. They avoided questions and flat-out lied on some occasions. However, both seemed rather fired up as they answered – well, skirted around – their questions.
   
So who won? Nobody. Not Obama, not Romney and not the American people. Nobody won the debate on Tuesday.
   
Politics should inspire rational thought and intelligent conversation. Politics are supposed to help people develop a worldview based on what is fact and what is complete fiction. Politics are supposed to be taken seriously, as they determine the direction our nation will take for the next four years and beyond.
   
And what came out of the debate? Memes of Bill Clinton asking where he can find a “binder full of women.”
   
We complain that our candidates and political system are corrupt and broken, yet what do we do about it? We encourage our politicians’ bad behavior. We don’t write our representatives anymore, we don’t attend important political meetings and events and we don’t even know what bills are being passed. All we do is post crappy memes.
   
Candidates can get away with saying nothing of value at debates because they know the public will eat it up. Do you want our politicians to get smart? Then we need to get smart.
   
Democracy is only as effective as the people who run it – us – and if this is the case, then America won’t be the land of the free forever.