24th Jun 2003
Blogs and Political Reform
I was talking with Nick Denton the other night briefly about politics and asked him how he considers himself, and he said he still feels that he is basically a liberal (despite all his political rantings that might suggest otherwise). Same goes for me, though I have felt more or less politically rudderless since Sept. 11th, or even well before then.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been inspired by a political leader (post-9/11 Giuliani not included). True, I dislike Bush more than I disliked Clinton, but not by a whole lot. I remember my mom saying of Clinton, “Sure he’s a bastard, but he’s our bastard.” That may work for her, after having spent decades as a political activist Democrat, but it’s not good enough for me. He certainly wasn’t my bastard. I wouldn’t even make him my bitch. I may still consider myself a liberal, or somehow I like the term “progressive” better, but I’m certainly not a Democrat, at least not a card carrying one, anymore. I most recently registered as a Green, just for the hell of it. I voted for Nader the last two presidential elections, but although I agree with most of his policies, I wasn’t exactly inspired by him, as he was so patently unelectable. Bottom line, they’re all a bunch of liars and yellow dogs and I can’t stand any of them.
My view of the Democratic candidates’ race for primaries now is like watching a slow-motion train wreck, only funnier. Not that I’m a close political observer; I’d rather be watching reality TV. But this is amusing enough to point out for those of you who don’t follow DayPop closely (I can’t live without it; I break out in hives when its servers are down and I’m forced to use its perfectly adequate alternatives Popdex and Blogdex). Dick Gephardt is getting a wonderfully satisfying introduction to blogs. Remember how bloggers picked up and obsessed on the foibles of Trent Lott and Howell Raines that the rest of the traditional media initially overlooked, eventually costing those two men their jobs? Well, Gephardt may well be next in line for the same treatment.
In response to the Supreme Court’s recent ruling for and against the University of Michigan’s affirmative action policy, Gephardt said at a Rainbow Coalition stump event:
“When I’m president, we’ll do executive orders to overcome any wrong thing the Supreme Court does tomorrow or any other day.”
What a freakin’ ass.
So, A-List blogger and libertarian law professor Eugene Volokh calls him on it, which is getting lots of links around the blogosphere. ABC News then picks up on it, and gets this email response from Gephardt’s campaign spokesman Erik Smith:
“The fact that this question comes from libertarian law professors should speak for itself. [Huh?] Dick Gephardt knows the law. The president can not overturn a Supreme Court decision. That’s not what he said….”
This, despite the fact that Volokh provides a link to a C-SPAN video which clearly demonstrates that is verbatim what Gephardt said (fast forward to 45:40).
Idiot. I’m pleased to have this chance to get in early on this as yet another blogger linking to this blunder in hopes that the groundswell of attention to it forces him to account for what the hell he actually meant to say.
In fact, blogs are in themselves the most inspiring movement in politics I’ve seen since I was last idealistic back in college, lo many years ago. Truly democracy in its most unadulterated form. Sadly, this kind of nit-picking like we’ve seen on Lott and Gephardt is really besides the point. It’s fun, but to be fair, anyone can say something stupid in a fit of passion or under the glare of stage lights that you later regret and just didn’t come out right (don’t I know it). (Of course, having your spokesperson later deny that you said it and blame the messengers because they are libertarian law professors — like “we all know about libertarian law professors” — doesn’t really help matters.)
No, the real problem is the whole damn political system. Namely, it costs a fortune to run for public office because it all comes down to advertising on TV, a commodity horded by companies based on a government issued license of the public’s airways. As a result, the politicians whore themselves to big business to raise the money to run the ads to win the elections. It’s all so incestuous and circular it’s insane. Here’s the obvious solution: set aside free time for political ads. Have TV networks raise the price of the rest of their ads to make up for what they lose in political ads, which companies would easily be able to afford as they won’t have to buy off the politicians any more, because the politicians won’t need to raise so much money for the TV ads, where 90% of their budgets go to today. Easy peasy.
That’s the real issue, not what one particular moron said with his foot in his mouth in one particular stump speech. Can’t we bloggers somehow organize to force real campaign finance reform once and for all onto the agenda? That would demonstrate that our collective power could actually be useful to make a real difference. Let’s not hold the bastards accountable just in onesies and twosies, let’s go straight to the source and fix what’s really wrong with the system. A nice thought for me to dream about tonight, anyway. Goodnight.
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