The Koan of Silence

 koan:  noun, Origin:  Japanese

- a nonsensical or paradoxical question to a student for which an answer is demanded, the stress of meditation on the question often being illuminating.

Dangerous ones, we'd wager.

      2016 brought a phenomenon never seen in politics before:  a party turned down 34--originally 40!--hours of free prime time television exposure for its candidates.  That's worth more than the gross domestic product of some countries.  This will leave generations of Political Science students wondering how a party can hope to get its message out without...you know...getting its message out. 

      For the favored candidate, interviews were few and friendly.  With rare exceptions, debate questions were fluff.  Previously Democratic web sites prohibited opinions from progressives.  November 8th came with little or no word from the Democratic nominee on the death penalty, a federally mandated minimum wage, marijuana legalization, K2College tuition, Henry Kissinger, Iraq, David Brock, Standing Rock, and myriad other key issues (none involving emails or Benghazi).

      For the other competitor, invitations were rare and the only question asked was "When are you going to withdraw?"  The sole factoid not kept secret was the superdelegate total.

      To no one's surprise the spotlight moved to and remained with the Republican nominee.  Most amazing of all was that so many were shocked when this koan of silence strategy backfired.

      The most lasting and disastrous effect of the koan of silence is that Centrists still have no idea why Progressives were so reluctant to vote for Hillary Clinton.  [HINT:  It had nothing to do with Comey, Russia, Wikileaks or emails.]