debasing the coinage

Oh boy have things been slow lately. Its incredible the lack of minbending going on around here.
Either that or there's been an interesting conglomeration between my ability to perform my work-duties with ease and my complete and total disregard for my liver lately. Maybe thats why I'm lethargic and bored.
All in all, the last few weeks have been tumultuous. I've taken up drinking and smoking like its a sport. The problem is, my old sport - sleeping - has been going down hill at a direct proportion to that of my new sport's mastery. That, of course, has affected both my ability and willingness to utilize any higher mind functions.
Luckily, in this current state of affairs at least, you don't really truly require them. People can pretty much get by with the intelligence of a duck and still manage to live out fairly "successful" (at least by our standards) lives.
But, of all things I've lost, I miss my mind the most, so I've decided to give up on my nightly drinking rituals and stick to a basic lifestyle of simple pleasures - reading, food, music. Although, there is that cute girl working the bar at delux tonight..... hmmm..
Anyways, while my libido and superego fight it out I'll elaborate on a few conceptual thoughts I've been trying to mull about in my head for a bit that I'd appreciate some feedback on. (this IS my hobby, James)
My very good friends and I were discussing all sorts of political punditry the other night when we came to the problem that we see these days: the complicated situations of our day are never fully realized on a large voting populous scale, and situations and reasoning are constantly lost to ridiculous taglines and obtuse references. Of course, it is all of our (non-right wing conservative) issues that we see as being poorly represented. Why was this? The left writes books, whereas the right writes bumper stickers.
This is not to say that either side could or couldn't write a decent argument, this is merely to point out that somewhere down the line, it became wholly evident that defense of the status quo (this is how we do it, this is how it should be done) is made exceedingly easy by throwing a tagline at it and calling it a day.
Public relations has turned our political atmosphere inside out. Being involved in that industry, it makes me want to shoot myself when I realize how basically obvious it is: The majority of the voting public doesn't read.
Not to say they're illiterate, but to say they don't ever themselves involved in the intricacies of dissertations on global warming, etcetera. Another thing that one could say is that most people (and by this, the majority of the voting public, as well as most of our politicians) fail to read closely.
Too many times do I see an saddening sway of opinion to directly reflect whatever it is that they have recently digested - and then it will switch again the next moment.
This is not the nuanced "flip flopping" of Kerry's ever-changing moods as portrayed by the "right" during the election. But seeing Kerry's ideas as flip flopping rather than nuanced and differentiating grayscale rather than black and white is exactly my point.
People need to learn to read closely - but we are only taught the action. Never the internal reasoning that weighs evidence, finds logical fallacies, etcetera.
Of course, one could say the entire style of our education system has revolved around exactly that - learning to take a test, not to think.
But thats for other times.
For now, I'll leave with observations and questions. I don't have any answers right now. In all honesty, I don't know if answers to these types of things are at all possible. Suggestions? Maybe. Ideas? Definitely. Answers? Not in the sense that people are looking for.