The debt-ceiling standoff: great taste, less filling

Just Marketing can't help but think of the debt-ceiling standoff -- the great tax more, spend less non-debate -- in terms of its marketing antecedents. 

Fierce but ultimately spurious opposition between two otherwise compatible positions, gets attention by creating a spectacle:

The tug-of-war heightens the importance of the two attributes, and reinforces the semblance of polarization, when in fact, the parties are largely talking past each other (they're tugging on different ropes). 

At the same time, other possible, and potentially important points of debate, and even possible areas of compromise are neglected or sidelined.

Concerned folks all over the world are looking on in bewilderment at the spectacle American politicians have manufactured in the debt ceiling debate, and wondering...do these people think they're in a beer commercial?

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