If neither Dennis Kucinich nor Ron Paul is your first choice in this year’s civic decision that you should be making, I suggest that one of them should be.
There is no doubt that democracy has been diminished for their exclusion from multiple debates. The reasoned arguments from the edges are what sometimes steers a ship of state in the right direction.
If you won’t support either of them, you owe your country at least to listen to them. You don’t have to agree with them. Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich are voices we need.
And maybe when you listen, you’ll remember how media is supposed to work. An airing of ideas, not a lashing of tongues. It’s hard not to interpret the exclusion of candidates by large corporate “sponsors” of debates to be anything but silencing of voices of dissent.
This country was built on dissent.
I’ve put Bill Moyer’s Journal in my RSS aggregator, and the audio podcast in my iTunes. If you still prefer the cathode ray, they do allow him on the air waves, but only on a station funded by the public.
There are several other ways to expose yourself to real discourse,… if you choose civic responsibility.
The problem with Ron Paul is that he’s either starting to pander, or he doesn’t know the constitution very well.
Either one is bad in a politician.
Bad Astronomy on Ron Paul
I’d rather think he’s pandering. At least then you can just lump him in as yet another slimeball. But if he really doesn’t know the constitution you have to wonder whether he should be elected at all.
Of course… few politicians know the constitution. If they did, we’d scarcely need a supreme court, would we?
I believe the voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, and the other states which have held elections to date did actually listen to these men, and they either did not liked what they heard or didn’t feel that these fellows are the person who should lead the country as President. Dennis Kucinich did so poorly in 2004 that one really has to question why he ran again the time, unless he just likes being in the excitement of a national compaign.
Just here to spread the word about International Comment on Blogs Day
Isn’t it time we ALL de-blurked?
Corey,
Are you talking about Ron Paul in general, or that video/audio/transcript in particular? I thought he neither pandered nor showed lack of Constitutional knowledge.
Chris,
I don’t think they necessarily didn’t like what they heard. I think they chose other people as candidates. Their worth as a voice is what I’m stating.
Kucinich in particular said if you’re in Iowa at a caucus, and the first vote leaves me out of the running, I suggest you vote for Obama as a second candidate.
Jay,
Blurkers and commenters are all welcome here!
Bill,
Ron Paul’s essay (linked after the video in the blog post) is what I based my comments on. The essay is demolished by a skeptic (also linked) which was a good read.
I can’t do much with a video if it isn’t captioned. As a general rule I don’t even play them. The resolution is never good enough to lipread either.
The basic gist is that Ron Paul said that the constitution is riddled with references to God. This is flatly untrue. Along with some other things he talks about in the essay, he comes off as a either a severe nutjob or a panderer. I can’t stand either type. I could care less about his other political stances. If you haven’t got integrity and / or don’t use reason to reach conclusions, you shouldn’t have a driver’s license let alone be elected.
But that’s just me. I’m the guy that’s never met anyone worth voting for.
The media excluded Kucinich and Paul from the debates to censor any dissent and to limit our voting options. Kucinich was invited to debate because he met the requirements and then MSNBC (a GE company) told him 48hrs later that he was disinvited because they changed the requirements. This is the sad state of affairs in our country today.
I think what I like about both Kucinich and Paul is that they believe in the constitution. The US constitution was modeled after the Magna Carta. The whole purpose of the Magna Carta was to make leaders accountable to law. The main law being the writ of Habeas Corpus or the right to a fair trial. Bush/Cheney have dismantled our constitution and our democracy is forever damaged.
Both men would be great leaders for our country.