I hate the term “family values.” In fact, I despise any and all politically structured phrases coined for the purpose of seizing the attention of the American people.

Catchalls such as “family values” are vague, imprecise and subject to interpretation. They are political code words created to elicit overwrought response. Formulated with the sole purpose of control by people who have their own significant agendas, they have done little to further political discourse or solution.

In fact, I think phrases such as economic recovery, global outsourcing, pro-life, health care reform and the like can be blamed for their significant contribution to the fracturing in our country, if not the dumbing-down of America. They separate us rather than unite us, and they discourage discussion because they are emphatic rather than dialectic.

Unfortunately, the American political lexicon has become fraught with such phrases. And something needs to be done to change this if America is ever going to have an honest dialogue with itself.

I thought about this today because I was thinking about Thanksgiving. I was remembering the Thanksgivings of my childhood, a time when American families gathered together to commemorate the Pilgrims 1621 celebration.

That was a time when families lived in the same town and didn’t have to worry about congested airports and security checks to get together. Mom, Dad and the children got in the family car and drove to grandma’s house to celebrate the quintessential American holiday. Aunts and uncles, cousins, and often close family friends, joined at the elaborately dressed table and ate, and laughed, and enjoyed each others' company.

Kids were kids then and behaved accordingly. After too much turkey and way too much pumpkin pie, and the effects of the sugar high that followed, one or the other would fall asleep in mommy or daddy’s lap exhausted --  and bored with the political debate being argued at the dinner table.

As we got older, our parents encouraged us to take part in political discussion, and we did, often at the dinner table.  But that was the era when each and every evening the family dined together at a requisite time, talked about the day and discussed the news. Political discourse was encouraged. It wasn’t positions that we argued, but rather ideas. Then Americans looked for the best leader, not necessarily a Republican or a Democrat, or either party's newest star.

But times change and I guess the political discussion as well. Families still gather for their Thanksgiving feast but mommy and daddy probably aren’t there discussing politics because they’re divorced. And grandma and grandpa’s voices are missing from the discussion because they aren't at the table because they live too far away.

So, it is true that our families are fractured and maybe around this season’s Thanksgiving table the possible solution to the problem can be addressed. But I daresay, if the term “family values” is thrown out for discussion all you’ll get is a free-for-all.

The kind you see in the capital these days for surely if you're looking for an honest political debate on the fractured American family, it won't happen in Washington, D.C. If seems that our politicians have forgotten about America. It's about them, their party, an election, a win, divide and conquer, right, left, liberal, conservative, democrat, republican. . . win. . win. . .win. . .win.

It makes you wonder whatever happened to that time when we sat at the Thanksgiving table, the united family of America.

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