The Case for Intelligent Debate

I watched Al Gore on the Today show this morning. His new book "The Assault on Reason" caused quite a stir as Diane Sawyer tried to point the discussion towards the sound bites and Mr. Gore patiently deflected every question and insisted on a deeper analysis. Poor Diane Sawyer! She acknowledged the forced shallowness of her interview (had to break for a commercial) and informed us that we'd get another segment later in the show. One of Mr. Gore's larger points was the fact that the media can only focus on the superficial aspects of the news, the sound bites. Any kind of worthwhile discussion of the issues is beyond the scope of big media news.

Because of this forced shallowness, the media has unwittingly supported the falsehoods, deception, and the assault on reason that we've suffered during the Bush Administration. Remember that most of these guys were burned in the 70's by the Watergate scandal and the Nixon debacle. They've learned their lessons well. They are secretive, scornful of the American people, and very well attuned to the power of The Sound Bite. Policy that can be reduced to simple catch phrases repeated ad infinitum, enable real policy to be hidden. MIdnight meetings, procedural manipulations, and total secrecy supported by LOYALTY to the LEADER, is then sold by media's need for "sellable" headlines.

As Mr. Gore tried to point out to Ms. Sawyer, this is the recipe for the policy disasters that have occurred under the Bush Administration. There really hasn't been any debate, only name calling. The arguments are not about the issues but about Loyalty and Partisanship. If the policies were decided by reason, intelligence, good information, and substantive debate, we can surely could have done better at governance.

We've had our fill of this Mob Rule we've suffered. The case to impeach Bush is clear. Articles of impeachment on Cheney have already been filed. The case to impeach Gonzales is increasingly clear. I call on members of Congress to address these issues and bring on the debate. Let's finally open the window on the White House to expose the ugliness of purely partisan, radical right wing rule. I encourage this only so that we may learn by the process and ensure that it might never happen again.