US presidential election ignoring large social realities

Washington

WE have all manner of policy proposals from the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, but there's a sobering disconnect between what they're advocating and the large problems the country actually faces. The candidates seem caught in a time warp. Democrats plug new entitlements. Republicans embrace tax cuts. All this is familiar; it's also a flight from reality.

Whoever wins next November will inherit three major domestic problems that, though obvious, are downplayed because the politics are so unfavourable. (I'm excluding foreign policy and climate change.) Together, these three realities will go a long way towards defining 21st century America.