Off Topic — HabitableZone

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Robert — (archived)

Carter's a gutsy choice, but I see it, for his combination of intellect and principles. That's 2/3 of what a President needs, and Jimmy was a little thin on the personal leadership factor. Bill Clinton gets a 2/3 score, in his case intellect and personal leadership; his principles were at best mushy and hard to define--"Ah feel yer pain" is not exactly a principle. I know that the Right downplays personal leadership as somehow wimpy, but if a President's winning smile and twinkle in the eye aligns much of the world America's way, that's the result that counts.

As for the next President, that is indeed the crucial question. You insist that it be somebody new, and I'm not sure that I see any of the new faces as anybody genuinely new, just "Politicians: The Next Generation". But what about a familiar face belonging to somebody who's been wandering in the wilderness, and seems to have returned with a few epiphanies?

Yeah, I'm talking about Big Al Gore. He's changed in the last eight years, and I think he's worth at least a serious look. I recently read his latest, "The Assault on Reason". About a third of it uses the current Administration to illustrate his thesis, but the actual thesis itself is nonpartisan and thoughtful: The decline of democratic politics in America is due to the domination over the last half century of one-way, top-down political communication via broadcast media, most notably of course television. It has pretty much destroyed the lateral communication that used to be such a notable feature of American democracy, the public debate, the rich examination of all sides of all issues by all Americans. Instead, we've become couch potatoes, spectators to a new form of professional sports, mindlessly rooting for our team and its empty but pretty rhetorical uniforms.

(I got on a roll, and the latter part of that characterization is mine and not Al's, per se; but inspired by his thesis.)

Or: We've been the victims of a divide-and-conquer strategy designed to leave us wide open for manipulation through our intellectual isolation from fellow Americans. One of the checks-and-balances has been removed from the system: We rarely talk to each other to confirm what the politicans are telling us. No fact-checking, just consumption of opinion.

I also appreciated Gore's praise of the written word. He describes the invention of the printing press as humanity's moment of intellectual liberation, sings the praises of literacy and echoes Jefferson's celebration of an informed people. What's not to like?

Midway into the book I had an intriguing thought: Maybe Al Gore is already running for President, but consistent with his belief about the sad state of American democracy, he is competing in the marketplace of ideas that he prescribes as the preferred method of democracy. In this book he's so critical of the way that modern campaigns are run that he'd be open to charges of hypocrisy if he ran the conventional way; perhaps he's deliberately boxing himself in.

He's already established popular leadership in the realm of global climate change. Check. "The Assault on Reason" suggests that reformation of democracy may be his second intellectual project. Check. Then, if he waits as late as possible to take a position on solving the Iraq problem (delay is shrewd, to minimize the risk of making predictions that fail to come to pass), he will achieve a sort of political/intellectual trifecta.

That's a rosy interpretation, and I could be all wet. But in any case, if this is Al's strategy, I like the fact that he's not demanding kneejerk loyalty, not "manufacturing consent" in the modern style; but just putting his ideas out there and trying to engage in genuine political dialog.

Wouldn't that be refreshing?

You've already made your choice, eh? I'm not putting Al Gore forth as my horse in the race, just a possibility I'm keeping an eye on. Ready to share your choice?

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