President Trump? The joke's on us PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE

(FILES): This March 31, 2011 file photo shows Donald Trump talking to the press after receiving the American Automobile Association's (AAA) Five-Diamond Award for Trump's International Hotel & Tower New York at the hotel in New York City. Trump, a billionaire business magnate, socialite, author, and television personality renowned for his New York bluster, tied former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee for first on who should receive the 2012 Republican nomination, according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released on April 12, 2011. less (FILES): This March 31, 2011 file photo shows Donald Trump talking to the press after receiving the American Automobile Association's (AAA) Five-Diamond Award for Trump's International Hotel & Tower New York at ... more Photo: Timothy A. Clary, AFP/Getty Images Photo: Timothy A. Clary, AFP/Getty Images Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close President Trump? The joke's on us 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Once upon a time, Americans expected their celebrities to have a modicum of skill for entertaining the masses, and their politicians to have a modicum of skill for serving the public. The former expectation was demolished in the previous decade, with the rise of Paris Hilton and the Kardashians. In this decade, the latter expectation will be demolished. Donald Trump's latest potential presidential campaign run is the latest signal of this new condition.

Donald Trump has run for president before. He was a potential Reform Party candidate for the 2000 presidential elections. The obscure political party was a tip-off that it was nothing but a sideshow, and Trump delivered with celebrities at every stop and a gold-plated "Trump One" campaign plane. We all had a good laugh, and Trump went home before he had to face any voters but after he got a boost of what Trump likes best: media attention.

This time, the joke is on us. This time Trump is running for the Republican Party nomination. While he has shown absolutely no inclination of taking any of this more seriously than he did the first time around - he's running on a platform of "birtherism" and bullying the Arab states into handing over their oil - the American people are.

A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll showed that Trump is tied with Mike Huckabee as the top Republican presidential candidate. The Arizona state Senate just passed a "birther" bill requiring 2012 candidates to prove they were born in the United States after Trump met with the bill's author. Serious Republican candidates, like former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, are now being asked on national television how they feel about being Trump's vice president.

Fortunately, Trump will never be president. The man has no intention of ever standing before the voters - once he's milked all that he can out of the increased ratings for his reality television show, he'll ride off into the sunset on a Trump-branded horse. So the only question worth pondering here is how a nightmarish parody of self-actualization became a contender - or rather, how the American people allowed him to become a contender.

Something has happened in this country. The sole genius of Sarah Palin was to recognize the shift in the air. Once she realized that she could earn far more money and attention by pretending to be a serious politician than to actually be one, she left that boring job in the Alaska's governor's office and never looked back.

Now she endorses candidates, makes policy proposals, speaks at political engagements - all without having to bother with the messy business of governing. She's responsible for the rise of all those candidates who never should have been taken seriously and yet somehow manage to suck all of the oxygen, the attention, and the funding out of the room - from Michele Bachmann to Donald Trump.

Now, I'm not blaming her or anyone else for taking advantage of this new climate. Everyone needs a hustle in our ruthless economy, and they're only giving the people what they want. And apparently what people want is endless distraction, even in politics - all the better to pull them away from the desperation of our crumbling infrastructure, terrible schools and bankrupt job market.

But the problem is that this is not a reality show. This is our country. And while we may get the democracy that we deserve, the price we have to pay for our enjoyment of all of these ridiculous candidates may be larger than we expect.