Political reportage involves making decisions. The most basic is this: does one choose to write a piece that is balanced, or one that is objective?

Now, these two terms are too often used interchangeably, which is problematic, given that they are not at all equivalent to one another. This is certainly the case with America's traditional media and its reportage of political matters, in especially as far as our two major parties are concerned in this age of discontent.

At the risk of gross simplification, balance and objectivity respectively represent two schools of thought about describing the world we live in. One is Hegelian, the other Cartesian. Hegelian thought holds that truth is arrived at by proposing a thesis, which is then contrasted with a contradictory anti-thesis, from the reconciliation of which arises the synthesis that incorporates both. This is essentially the model political reportage follows in this country. 

Now, the problem that this presents in our political system is this: while one of our major parties is generally grounded in a universe where observable facts shape policy decisions, the other is not. There is little connection between historical reality and, for example, the idea that tax cuts produce budget surpluses. They do not, and other examples - on the veracity of evolution, on the efficacy of so-called "abstinence education, and so on and wearily on - demonstrate that the Republican Party at a profound level exists in a self-willed universe.

Hence, the problem with balance. When, say, the Democrats propose that higher taxes on the rich will reduce or eliminate the budget deficit, they have some solid empirical ground to stand on. To then, as the traditional media does with disarming silliness, contrast this position with some hare-brained idiocy from the Heritage Foundation claiming otherwise may well be balanced, in that both viewpoints on an issue are presented, but it is not objective - because one of these viewpoints is entirely at odds with what we know to be actually true.

So let's have less balance, and more objectivity.