How To Save Western Civilization Without Writing A Word

Having watched my beloved Redskins have their improbable playoff run ended by Seattle on Saturday, I decided to bypass the Jacksonville-Pittsburgh AFC game and switched to the live Presidential debates on ABC.
I had seen snippets of debates from both parties over the past couple of months, but this was the first time to observe most of the remaining candidates over a long period of time, with both parties allotted two hours.
Quite a few things occurred to me.
I realized how long it had been since I'd spent this much real time watching candidates make a case for themselves without a talking head or scribe telling me what happened.
I wished ABC had allowed all the candidates in. It would have been nice to hear from Duncan Hunter for the Republicans along with Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich for the Democrats (Fox even excluded Ron Paul from their Sunday debate, but I didn't watch that one).
I was impressed with Bill Richardson, whom I hadn't given any thought to prior to the debates. He thumped his hand on the table a few too many times, but he gave many thoughtful, intelligent responses.
And I thought about the writer's strike.
The fact is, I wouldn't have seen this debate at all if it hadn't been for the strike. I would have watched another show or stayed with football if it hadn't been offered. And I'm willing to bet the debate never would have been offered on network TV had it not been for the strike.
We are now at the point where the networks are running out of new episodes of their scripted shows. Thus, they need to find alternative programming. Usually it's reality shows, many of which are forgotten as soon as they're over. Someone at ABC, though, got a brilliant idea- it doesn't get any more real than the presidential elections. Thanks to that one thought, many of us got a real education about the people who want to be our next leader of the free world. In the process, ABC managed to fill four hours of prime time programming without having to unnecessarily burn up a new episode of "Men In Trees", "Women's Murder Club" or "According to Jim."
I've mentioned before that I support the writers in their work stoppage. They deserve their piece of the revenue pie from online programming sales. The powers that be should be quick to realize it and give them as close to what they want as possible (hey, I'm willing to let them save a little face). Yet, for the second time, I find myself hoping the strike lasts a month or two longer.
The longer it lasts, the better the chance the big four networks might devote some of their prime-time programming void to the presidential primaries. In turn, we will become a better-informed electorate.
If that happens, part of the settlement with the writers should be a piece of the revenue pie from election coverage, because their strike helped make that revenue happen.