I'm Pete du Pont with the National Center for Policy Analysis. If it's summer, you know television is going to start dumbing down, and this year the dumbest is "Survivor." you know the drill: a bunch of losers get dumped on an island; they bicker, whine, eat rodents and the sole survivor wins a lot of money.
But this is a "reality" TV version of survival — I put "reality" in quotation marks. What the competitors survive isn't weather and starvation and venomous serpents; it's each other. The winner isn't the last one standing, it's the last one not to get voted off the island. Voted. This is a test of mettle? No, it's a popularity contest.
If they really wanted a survival test, they'd drop them off on the beach, and say "see you in six months. Anybody who can't stand it any more, there's the radio." meanwhile, hidden cameras would record the dissolution of society.
Now that would be entertaining. I don't want a Democratic party primary, I want "Lord Of The Flies."
Those are my ideas, and at the NCPA we know ideas — and turning off your television — can change the world. I'm Pete du Pont. Next time, Al Gore's Social Security Plan.