George H.W. Bush says:
…the current political climate has “gotten so adversarial that it’s ugly.†Asked to offer an explanation for why there is this “incivility,†Bush pinned the blame on bloggers. “It’s probably a little worse now given electronic media and the bloggers and all these kinds of things,†he said.
I don’t expect people getting up in years to grasp technology, but this was said about the printing press, telephones, radio and TV and now ‘the email’ and blogs. The clip of the interview from that evil TV technology is on Think Progess.
Also, Bush revealed that he enjoys using “the email†but lamented that his son, President George W. Bush, cannot for fear that the emails would get subpoenaed. Bush worried that presidents who used email would be forced to prove “that you were telling the truth and all this stuff.â€
Ah yes, we wouldn’t want to be forced to tell the truth and all this stuff.
It’s true but that’s not new really. I mean, you go back in history and you’ll find that there was always adversarial politics. There was always gut fighting. And it’s probably a little worse now given the electronic media and the bloggers and all these kinds of things.
via: Jordon Cooper
Political discourse in the US has gotten coarser in the last five years. The question becomes whether blogs aided that coarsness or merely reflected a coarsening of American society.
It’s probably a little of both, but I think the anonymous and hyperbolic nature of blogs have made things a little rougher. On the other hand, it has democritized things to a great measure, where politicians and leaders have to deal with more than just a few key pundits and reporters.
It makes being a poltician more challanging than in the last century, and that’s good on ballance.
True.
I agree with you the balance will pay off.
Bloggers have had nothing to do with the attack ads on radio and TV before this medium came along, and I think you are right, the internet has democratized things to a greater measure.