Letters to the Editor
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Main meal or a side dish?
Today Salon served up two pieces about Ron Paul. True, they are a step up from recent Salon articles about the Presidential race and their cheeky, cynical tone. These two features are positive and respectful to the candidate, and some of the questions they cover are indeed thought-provoking.
Unfortunately they still largely fall into the fatal journalistic trap called 'let's handicap the Hollywood horse race.' The play-by-play announcer breathlessly intones: He's behind the pack. How fast can he run? Can he catch up? Does he really have a chance? Then the color commentator goes on about how is he like other horses who have run on this track before (Howard Dean), and why his fans love him.
And of course, worst of all, is the typical problem of the journalist's ego giving him license to impose himself into the process, by reinforcing the perception of who can win and who can't before a single vote has been cast, and thus affecting the outcome. To wit: 'running a quixotic campaign,' etc. Another unfortunate part of the 'handicapping trap.'
Rather than informing his readers, and empowering them to make a better choice, he furthers the problem by providing no real substance. By focusing on the popularity contest like we were voting for Homecoming King, the author (unconsciously?) thus reinforces the current opinions and biases of his readers and adds to the self-fulfilling prophecy that 'he can't win.'
I'm up for a little excitement, sure. But what should we be all excited about? Do we just want to make sure we know the odds from Vegas this week so we can back the winner, or do we need some help making a solid, informed choice? How much did we learn about Ron Paul the man, his history in politics, his stands, and his vision for the country that we didn't know before we read these articles? Very little.
Did we learn anything about WHY 61% of the Republicans in NH won't vote for him under any circumstances? Do we know why Ron Paul's supporters are focusing on a Republican candidate to save us? Or how many of them typically vote Dem, Repub, or Independent? We do get a taste of the major concerns they think Ron Paul will successfully address, but none of that is a major revelation. Things are pretty messed up.
If these articles were dishes in a meal, they wouldn't be sweet and sticky like dessert, but they wouldn't measure up as the main course, either. They're just appealing side dishes, not the meat and potatoes we really need. How will these articles help us to compare and contrast Ron Paul with the other candidates? Can we trust him? Has he kept his word in the past? Does he have a solid voting record that matches his campaign stands? Do we have a useful summary of his major stances on the issues and how they stack up against Dems and Repubs? I wish we did.
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The Message? What Message
Although I am very familiar with Paul's message, it's fascinating that the article spends almost no time at all enabling Paul to outline what his core message really is. Our media is so driven to explore the personality and odds making aspect of elections that the real important message defining component of journalism has been lost or at best, overlooked. It would be fascinating to see Salon do in depth interviews with each candidate on a host of issues like big government vs. small, more federal or state power, the role of the federal government, who should provide health care, how much taxation is enough, war and who really has the authority to start them, the role of religion in government, the best way to improve education to or poorest citizens, how to truly reduce inner city crime, the war on drugs, how terrorism is generated and reduced, our relationship with China, Russia, Europe, Africa, S.A. I mean do some in depth interviewing and then do some summary pieces that contrast positions that don't allow for any attacking of the other candidate. Simply find out what each candidate is for ... how they would solve the problem ... how they would consolidate support ... how they really see it. Don't let them box all their answers into short talking points, but go beyond it and then write penetrating issue oriented pieces that show these contrasts. Now that would be powerful.
MSLKauai
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Ron Paul as a possible independent
I'm glad you asked him about a possible run as a 3rd party candidate, and I imagine many of his supporters would like to see him run as an independent.
I also note that:
1.It doesn't seem the front-tier democratic candidates have seriously considered how to address the possibility that Paul will break from his party after it's statistically impossible for him to get the GOP nomination, and
2.here in Texas,
independent candidates have until May 12th to turn in signatures to get on the ballot as an independent, and can start collecting petition signatures no earlier than March 5th, after the Texas primary. I'm guessing other states have similar stipulations. The point being he has time, should he change his mind.
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Wow, congratulations
An entire interview with a presidential candidate and I didn't learn a single thing about his positions on any issues other than that he's against the war (information so vague as to be useless.)
I expect that sort of thing on NBC and CNN, but I thought Salon was aiming higher than that.
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I hear that
Venezuela needs a needs a new assistant secretary of Demagoguery.
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Ron Paul interview
Just want to say I'm a senior citizen who has voted Democratic all her life. It has been a big relief to encounter the campaign of Ron Paul and know there is someone I can enthusiastically support, based on his experience, reputation for ethical politics, healthy philosophy of self-reliance, and his substantive platform of ideas for stabilizing the Ship of State. Our country is being eviscerated by a swarm of inept policies, including the Iraq war, The Middle East, No Child Left Behind, and our unsupportable national debt. Obama simply doesn't have the experience, and Hillary is coming across as a woman so hungry to enter the room to "Hail to the Chief" that she is pandering right and left. Plus her cheek-to-cheek reliance on her cheating husband, Bill, the brilliant politician cum opportunistic liar, to catapult her once again into the White House, gives me the shivers. I want to vote for someone I can trust. Ron Paul? Why not. Go, Ron!