RatcliffeBlog - Mitch Thinking Out Loud

Joining the Lessig/Dean debate

Joining the Lessig/Dean debate

Here's my posting to the comments on Larry Lessig's blog, which is being guest-blogged by presidential candidate Howard Dean....

I'm pleased to see the Governor Dean and his campaign engaged so deeply in dialog, albeit Richard Bennett can be reductive and annoying. The debate here is incredibly productive.

The problem with media conglomeration isn't that there is a black and white choice between being ridden rough-shod by Rupert Murdoch or shutting down the "Murdoch empire," but that we find a way to create balance in the media so that different voices can be heard. Fox News doesn't just deliver facts we decide on, it preaches constantly about the right way to think. The same it true with every publication, though many media folks don't want to believe that. Chris Hedges' book, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, talks accurately about how in every war people make the mistake of taking sides instead of looking at war for what it is -- horrible -- and judging whether war and the attendant suffering is necessary.

Governor Dean clearly does not wish to neuter the United States military, but he also doesn't want to put young Americans in harm's way without very good reasons. The Iraq threat was blown out of proportion all along to create a war psychology in the United States. It was portrayed as another "quick war" even though it was clear all along that entering the Middle East is a long-term and probably losing proposition if military force is your major bargaining chit. The question of buying uranium was just one exaggeration and we should continue to explore the extent of the lies presented to the public to justify this action, as well as the constant blurring of the lines between civilian and military action by the Bush Administration.

Liberia, on the other hand, is a relatively simple question, since even small forces have stopped violence in many African conflicts, such as Cote d' Ivoire (about 1,500 French commandos, who took few or no casualties), which is right next door to Liberia. Simply raising the stakes in Liberia so that the thugs are confronted with superior firepower is a proven solution to gang violence in Africa. That doesn't make the question of sending American troops any easier, especially in light of the Somalian campaign, but it does expose the calculation the Bush Administration made in Iraq as plainly political and opportunistic.

The really important question for me in this act of political blogging by Governor Dean is whether it is a sustained effort that will continue after the election is over? A dialog like this, trolls and all, is a hell of a lot more important to democracy than whether any of us, including the Governor, is right or wrong on a particular subject. We're supposed to disagree and find compromises we can all live with; if we all lived according to one party's rules it would not be the United States anymore. It's important that we are talking as Americans with a would-be president and it will be refreshing if a President Dean, should it work out that way, be engaged with us throughout his administration. Transparency in American politics has vanished in a cloud of 9/11-inspired secrecy and we need it back.