Newt Gingrich, the uncandidate, says “it’s very clear that our current political system is utterly, totally incapable of serious conversation.”
He says that the Hillary 1984 attack is is “utterly totally destructive of the process of thought. There is not a single thing in that commercial that enables America to solve a problem.”
Oh, crap, I’m agreeing with Gingrich. He continues:
“Oh, it’s clever. Fills up space on television. People can talk about it. It’s the Entertainment Tonight version of governing a great country. And it’s very dangerous. Because we have no habits anymore of serious dialogue. We have no habits of serious citizenship. Everything is reduced to gossip, attack, whose consultant is cleverer, and it’s really very destructive.”
This from the man who impeached a president over gossip and shut down the government over a snub and faced no shortage of ethics charges. But nevermind, I’m agreeing with the man today.
Gingrich challenges the candidates to agree to have a 90-minute dialogue once a week, once nominated, “with a timekeeper and no moderator, no mickey mouse questions, no gimmicks. Two adults, much like Lincoln and Douglas…. which were seven three-hour debates.” This will surely make us sick of them. But, yes, it’s better than attack ads.
And he urges us to join this YouTube group. “YouTube,” his video says, “can be used for discussing ideas, not just negative attack ads.” Amen.
Link to this post is our 200th post at Politics 2.0 (What’s now and what’s next!)
Well, I’ve viewed the responses thus far to Newt’s “Save the Goose” video challenge, and they aren’t exactly enlightening ways to move this country forward, either. Capital is the sun and taxes are a shield that blocks it, oooh; capital is like water and taxes are the drain, aaahhh; and then there’s the creepy guy in the baseball cap who I couldn’t understand for a second. I made my own response but I’m really not sure he’d appreciate my adding it to his group feed.
If these conversations aren’t serious or helpful, it isn’t YouTube’s fault. The lack of substance in the national dialog about elections has been endemic since the 24 hour cable news cycle, and the paramount goal of the media buzz is the reason anyone who can’t raise hundreds of millions of dollars is considered “second tier.” YouTube is just a low-cost trampoline that people can try to use to vault themselves into the national spotlight if only for a few moments (thanks to dedicated internet reporters on CNN) without mortgaging the farm.