Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Thoughts on the blogosphere and the election
First I'll get my impressions of the debate out of the way. John Edwards lied so outrageously it is impossible to approach him as a politician, let alone a statesman. He is a lawyer plain and simple and that's all he'll ever be. The highpoint of the debate was when Edward's tried to trot out the long since refuted Haliburton claims, Cheney went upside Edward's exquisitely coiffured head with his attendance record. I thought Cheney did a great job of pointing out the absolute lack of accomplishment of either Kerry or Edwards. Kerry is already regretting picking an ambulance chaser for a VP.
What I realized after the debate was that the blogosphere has raised the standard of of accountability in such a way that it has become something of a double edged sword. If you are going to wield it against your enemy, you have to be squeaking clean yourself. Suffice to say that Republicans and our government in general have skeletons as well, and if they are going to take advantage of the blogosphere they have to clean those up. I'm encouraged that the party I now support is demonstrably headed in this direction. The alternative seems to be the option that the Democrats are taking. Edwards kept imploring the public to look, pay attention, and invoked the lawyerly tactic of mental visualization. The anti-Bush camp wants to stick with television as it's medium. They have the resources in place, they know how to use it effectively and it will say what they want it to say with no accountability. Like hordes of teletubbies, an entire generation of Boomers and their heirs apparent are still under the sway of television. But now the blogosphere is here and we've even fired what Wretchard called "the shot heard round the world". But it's going to be a long war between appearance and substance. TV has been giving us exactly what we've wanted for almost three generations. I think the outcome of this war for the heart of American hinges on whether we are finally ready to trade instant gratification for responsibility.
What I realized after the debate was that the blogosphere has raised the standard of of accountability in such a way that it has become something of a double edged sword. If you are going to wield it against your enemy, you have to be squeaking clean yourself. Suffice to say that Republicans and our government in general have skeletons as well, and if they are going to take advantage of the blogosphere they have to clean those up. I'm encouraged that the party I now support is demonstrably headed in this direction. The alternative seems to be the option that the Democrats are taking. Edwards kept imploring the public to look, pay attention, and invoked the lawyerly tactic of mental visualization. The anti-Bush camp wants to stick with television as it's medium. They have the resources in place, they know how to use it effectively and it will say what they want it to say with no accountability. Like hordes of teletubbies, an entire generation of Boomers and their heirs apparent are still under the sway of television. But now the blogosphere is here and we've even fired what Wretchard called "the shot heard round the world". But it's going to be a long war between appearance and substance. TV has been giving us exactly what we've wanted for almost three generations. I think the outcome of this war for the heart of American hinges on whether we are finally ready to trade instant gratification for responsibility.
papijoe 5:41 AM
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