Governor Patrick's having a little blogger conference this coming Saturday and he's encouraged invited bloggers to bring questions from our readers. I haven't thought of exactly what I want to talk about, so reader input is appreciated.
Questions you won't hear coming out of my mouth include, but are not limited to,
"What's your favorite kind of Cadillac?"
"I need a reference, could you make a phone call?"
"Do you recommend Ethan Allen as a furniture company?"
In fact, I'm not asking anything about any of these manufactured stories... I'm much more interested in his intentions for the new people-powered campaign to fix Massachusetts. I'm much more interested in his plans to bring the Bay State into the 21st Century. There's some exciting things going on in the Patrick Administration and, after this Saturday, I hope I can tell readers about a few of them.
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11 comments:
If I can break away, I'll see you there. We both got invited, lol!
Those are no "Manufactured stories" my friend. The Caddy and the drapes may have been blown out of proportion, but the phone call is a serious matter bordering on ethical violation.
Ask him why all the Democrats in the house voted to NOT use the federal standards when financial accouts in the house are audited; and all the Republicans DID vote to use federal standards. As a businessman he should realize some outside independent auditing would be a good idea.
Ask him how we readers of blogs can help.
-KBusch
I know how we can help, KB!
Let's start a progressive blog where most of the content is written by Republicans. Then, when Democrats respond, we can smack them down, and...
Oh wait. Nevermind.
Back to the original post: I think Estes is onto something. If Patrick is going to get nailed for sending out talking points, he might as well actually do it. As long as they are factual information, not BS spin, they can do some good.
Accusations of partisanship. Absolutely right 8:10 pm person, Republicans constantly constantly accuse Democrats of partisanship. "If only!" I tell myself. "If only!"
(The blog of which you speak seems to consist of excellent media criticism wrapped around a strange collection of definitions of what it means to be civil, substantative, and productive.)
-KBusch
KB, what a blog wants to be is not always the same as what it is. Last I looked, 80% of the user posts were written by Republicans. And look what happens when a politician posts.
How does that move the ball forward?
What does a blog want to be?
The problem for that blog of which you speak (let's see who can be the most coy!) is that there is an endlessly renewable supply of conservatives who will play gotcha or troll. An interest in understanding and conversing with the other side is somewhat esoteric -- particularly on the right. As that site becomes more prominent, it'll attract more such members and its "community" will be full of passionate but uninteresting left-right exchanges.
The owners do not tend to think of this problem politically either. Possibly -- I'm guessing here -- legal training includes a well-defined notions of courtroom civility. The owners may imagine that can be transferred to Blog World. At least, that's my attempt at trying to make sense of their approach.
In the long run, that's too bad because I really think we need active discussions among Democrats. That's what saved Social Security. That's what could extract us from Iraq. That's what could help Patrick be successful. Debating people who don't respect you to begin with can be exhilirating but it is a waste of time.
-KBusch
So when Deval asked for questions did he say he only wanted them from progressive loyalists, and then he could answer them with some of his pre-packaged talking points?
Yes, 5:17, that's precisely what he said. It was in the original memo, which regrettably seems to have vanished into whatever place left socks go to disappear.
I'm highly amused by the unintentional hilarity of Republicans making talking points into a talking point.
Oh, and KB, it's not even about debating Republicans. That would require some Democratic airtime in the first place. Count the number of user diaries written by Red Mass Group posters sometime.
Talking points, the Horror!
Since 1992, Republicans have shown that message discipline works. It works so well that it increased their Senate seats in 2002 and it got the Bicyclist in Chief re-elected in 2004. In the world in which we now live -- not a happy fantasy world of reason and logic but the actual world, talking points and message discipline are becoming essential for political success.
When I say this to "Ray Flynn Democrats", they imagine I'm advocating lying. No I am not. When done by progressives, talking points should be a means of giving the truth a theme song so everyone hums it.
-KBusch
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