Democracy: Victory & Defeat

This week saw both victory and defeat for our democracy and its ideals. The victory came via the leadership of Senator Chris Dodd (D- CT). Senate Majority "Leader" Harry Reid (D-NV) brought two competing FISA bills to the floor. One from the Intelligence Committee provided for retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies for their cooperation with the Bush Administration while spying on Americans illegally for the last five years. The other from the Judiciary Committee provided no such immunity. Dodd made it clear that he would filibuster the Intelligence Committee bill, hopefully ensuring that it will never see the light of day. Reid blinked and pulled both bills until after the holiday break.

The victory may be short lived, however. For a filibuster to truly work, its main proponent will have to have support. He or she cannot talk and talk and talk forever. He must be spotted. Dodd may or may not get this support. One question that I have is whether it will come from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), and/or Senator Joe Biden (D-MD). All three professed their support for Dodd's cause, yet only he returned to Washington from the presidential campaign trail to actually lead. It would seem that on a matter of such importance to the nation -- and make no mistake, this issue goes to the very core of who we are as a people -- it would be a good showing of what sort of president one would make by doing the job for which one had already been elected... no? And on that note, it might behoove us all to take a harder, longer look at the presidentail ambitions of Chris Dodd.

The defeat for America, and it was a significant one, came at the hands of the FCC. By a vote of three (Republicans) to two (Democrats), the FCC changed the media ownership rules to allow both a television station and a newspaper within one media market to be owned by the same entity. This is something that has never been allowed before on any level. We already have far, far too much media consolidation in our country. It has only dumbed down our national discourse on basically all topics. It has provided for far fewer and less diverse voices being heard both nationally and locally. And, most insidiously, it has helped to ensure that the viewpoints expressed are filtered through the wants and needs of these (corporate) media owners and the political powers that be. Those wants and needs are, to be sure, far different from those of the people at large. A democracy cannot stand such a state for long. History has taught us this and America will prove no different. There was a reason that freedom of the press was put in the First Ammendment. We are just too stupid, too passive to remember it.

19 December 2007