Now They're All Ears

Listening is the trendiest posture on the campaign trail. It's a scam, of course

It wasn't so long ago that politicians talked at us incessantly. They were scolds, know-it-alls, flatterers, braggarts, blowhards, loudmouths, balloon-juice merchants--choose your epithet. They were in love with the sound of their own voice. They wouldn't shut up. You could gag them with terry cloth, wrap them in cellophane, dump them in the Mariana Trench--you could plug your ears with a Walkman and crank up a Def Leppard CD to 10--and still you'd hear the little tinny yap-yap of some office seeker promising cleaner streets, safer subways, cavity-free teeth. There was no end to the talking. It was inescapable, depressing, mind...

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