Media Curmudgeon

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March 01, 2008

Guest Blogger Nick Kotz Asks About the Antidote

Guest blogger Nick Kotz writes:

"So far, so good. But Neither $4,200 nor $420 million is going to counteract another Swiftboating, which we are certain to get in the coming election. What are the antidotes?

This is a good subject for the Media Curmudgeon to explore now. Common wisdom is that Kerry thought that answering the attacks would simply give them more publicity and waited too late to respond. I don't know whether that analysis is correct. But we do need a powerful effort to prevent an Atwater- or Rove-type attack from stealing another election, not to mention a poll watching effort that will counter almost certain efforts to suppress and subvert the vote in precincts where Obama will be strong.

McCain's decency might help--the way he shot down the Ohio talk host's crude labeling of Barack Hussein Obama as an abettor of terrorists. But what do citizens do and what should the media be doing to minimize or counteract the dirty politics that will at some point pervade the 2008 campaign?

The internet is a powerful new weapon to spread information and arouse political constituencies. Obama's million plus internet contributors shows this power. To what extent did the Swiftboaters utilize the internet and how successfully? If a decorated Vietnam war hero can be turned into peacenik traitor, then an Obama who never served in the military, who is a card carrying member of the ACLU, whose middle name is Hussein, who has exposed every aspect of his coming of age in a magnificent memoir provides huge openings for demagogic attackers. He is vulnerable to smear campaigns.

The other day, a decent banker from Mississippi, in a conversation with me, innocently he said, called the Illinois Democrat "Osama." So curmudgeon, there is a big challenge in the next eight months to guarantee a fair election in which misinformation and dirty voting tactics don't determine the outcome."

I'm not a good enough apothecary, Nick, to have an antidote for this complex issue. The country is divided into thousands of interest groups that have their own little axes to grind, and for a variety of reasons they too often use rage and a take-no-prisoners approach to get their narrow, selfish way. They sharpen their axes and kill anyone who is not with them. There is no sense of compromise. They are throwing spoiled-child tantrums to get their way -- control over women and people who are different, preserving a wasteful, unsustainable way of life -- often driven by homophobia.

I have no antidote for stopping people who will subvert the democratic process and use hate and rage to win an election. I can only give all the money I can to Obama, write blogs, comment on blogs, make calls for Obama, campaign for Obama, and urge everyone I know to stop hating, stop wasting, and volunteer and give for Obama -- to choose hope, real change, cooperation instead of competition, and turn the fate of the country over to a much smarter, much more committed younger generation. We've screwed it up too much.

Posted by Charles Warner at March 1, 2008 09:58 AM

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