October 19, 2007

Force the Candidates to TALK!

Today I had the honor of listening to a brilliant and well-informed individual in my Dissident Media class, his name Rick Tyler, the press secretary for Newt Gingrich.

Recently Gingrich has challenged the potential candidates for president to open debates modeling the debates that Lincoln and Douglass had. He is calling for a Cooper Union Debate among the potential candidates for president.

Tyler said, “We need to come up with ways that force candidates to talk about the issues.”

What a brilliant idea!

This evening I am going to embrace that challenge and list some ways we can force our potential candidates for president to talk about the issues.

First I think the open forum, no rules debates are crucial. The two chosen candidates for the presidency need to discuss the issues face-to-face. Give the voters a reason to vote. Let us know what you think and how you are going to better this country. I am sick and tired of hearing about how flawed the competitions campaign is. Stop playing the limelight on the opposition. Shine the light on your views on the issues. That is what America is looking for.

Another way we can get candidates to talk about the issues is to start holding them to what they are publicly displaying, for instance, their websites. Look at them. Search their websites for their views and if they are not there be the watch dog yourself and call it to their attention. If we American’s stand up as united front to these candidates they can only hide behind their thirty second blurbs about the issues so for long.

Finally let’s take it to the Internet. Everyone is on the Internet, so let’s start getting the word out.

This blog was created to raise awareness to the people of this wonderful country that we need to stop settling for lame responses to important questions that effect our every day lives.

Who is voted in as the next president will have the power to change this country forever and I personally want that change to benefit me too.

So people of America let’s take it to the candidates! Let’s force them to have a real voice not the voice of the person putting the dollars in their pockets but a voice on the issues that affect us all.

1 comment:

Tony said...

"Let’s force them to have a real voice not the voice of the person putting the dollars in their pockets but a voice on the issues that affect us all."

But, that's not what Tyler said. Later on in his speech, the hypocritical press secretary admonished campaign financed reform laws and called for their abolition.

Granted, Tyler said such a thing was only possible if there was full transparency; that is, if candidates were forced to publish their fundraising records accurately and often. But as I said in class and in my blog post, transparency does not legitimize inequality. Removing finance reform laws allows larger donors to wholly support campaigns. It shifts the weight from the voter to the interest group or lobby once and for all, so much so that the 'bundler,' as he put it, is to whom the candidate is most accountable. And that is not democratic in any sense of the word. Tyler deserves no praise for that.