(CNN) -- I blame Kris Kardashian. Think about it. Doesn't the most recent episode of "Keeping Up with the Debt Limit" feel more as though it were an E! production than one by C-SPAN? Hasn't it been as predictable, brief and of itself, as inconsequential as a Kardashian marriage, as odious as Kanye and as certain to lead to unhappiness as Lamar's reputed drug problem? Doesn't the pinheaded disconnect from reality seem familiar? The problem is that it is easier to deal with the Kardashians than their counterparts in the Capitol. We can just change the channel. The reality is, we all depend on the U.S. government in enough ways that letting it turn into a repetitive, meaningless form of basic cable melodrama would be a formula for national catastrophe.
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David Rothkopf: "Keeping up with the debt limit" seems like a seamy reality show
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He says our political system is broken, national conversation is off-track
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Washington ignores really big problems, focuses on everything but governing, he says
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Rothkopf: Ultimately, we're to blame for not going to ballot box and forcing change
Scarily enough, the TV screen, whether it shows the Kardashians or @placeholder or cable news, is just a mirror, a reflection of what America wants and is.