Sucked back in already…
by Jon on Jan.12, 2008, under Babble, Politics
Damnit. Somehow I let myself spend the morning watching Gravel clips on YouTube. Who was I kidding? I can’t resist the urge to stand up with a revolutionary underdog, it’s just in my nature.
Some of the unofficial grassroots clips are pretty good too. For example, here’s one that illustrates the media manipulation of the process. Seems a bit foil-hat, does it? Well, just look at the final order:
Clinton 22:13
Obama 20:16
Edwards 13:44
Richardson 12:36
Biden 9:32
Dodd 9:21
Kucinich 8:29
Gravel 5:09
Do you really think it just happens that the list perfectly mirrors the shakeout of the race so far? I mean jeez, they even nailed Biden barely edging out Dodd. At the very least there’s a clear feedback loop — even if one argues that allotted time is based on prior polling, and discounts the notion that the media actively conspires to shape the race, certainly it’s clear that they reinforce the status quo and strip the debates of the ability to serve a real purpose. The very fact that we can’t draw a clear line between giving the people what they want and telling them what they want is a fundamental problem that utterly corrupts our democratic process, whether it’s intentional or not.
Meanwhile,
Chomsky’s on board, and Nader defends Gravel’s right to debate.
I think Richardson did me a favor dropping out. I’m much more suited to supporting cantankerous gadflies anyways.
I wonder, might there be potential for a third party run with the Greens? Actually, if the Libertarian Party wants to convince me they haven’t been forever lost to paleoconservative bigotry — and irrelevance — Gravel just might be the perfect candidate for the Green/Libertarian fusion that always gets discussed but never happens. Of course that would require they stop fellating their favorite homophobic, xenophobic, anti-evolution, anti-choice, now-maybe-also-racist Republican, and I don’t see that happening.
January 17th, 2008 on 9:24 pm
Jon – I am almost there myself, but then I was never backing Paul for any but the strategic purpose. I still think you overreact to each of the negatives as individual issues, but the weight is getting heaver, and the numbers are still being suppressed effectively (due to the divide and be conquered ranks from LP, GP, no-party, no-voters, et alia) . I’ll probably still vote Paul some time in the next week or so, but it’s far from a crusade
January 17th, 2008 on 10:04 pm
>it’s far from a crusade
And that’s sort of the point I’ve been trying to get across. I don’t have a problem with libertarians supporting him, donating, voting, whatever. What I have had a problem with is:
1) The way his right wing culitists (*cough* Dumas) apologize for, or worse, outright defend and attempt to “libertarianize” those things on which he’s wrong.
2) The LP basically handing him the keys to the kingdom, combined with the fact that doing so is just the latest step in moving the LP firmly into paleo territory. And I’m supposed to believe that if his campaign brings new hordes into the LP who agree with him on those issues, the slide will *reverse*?
Ron Paul is a Republican running as an old-right Republican. If people could have been happy with that and been content to help him succeed *on those terms*, there wouldn’t have been a problem. But by trying to turn him into the patron saint of liberty, his cultists practically *demanded* equal and opposite response from the left.