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It might be appropriate to say a few words about the internet’s new political obsession, Ron Paul.
He appears to have been getting a lot of coverage lately in his campaign as well as having truly phenomenal support on the internet. This, as 1066 And All That would say, is a good thing. As far as I can tell he seems fairly rational, and pretty much anything is better than the current state of things.
Even better is the way in which the internet campaign has picked-up momentum. Take from his own website, Ron Paul’s reference to:
our Revolution
Quite.
Arguably the internet is one of the most free forms of media available in that anyone can contribute. Essentially, it is like one giant Wikipedia without having to conform to strict facts and with opinions. Some have pointed to the technophiles who have taken part in the campaign so far and argue that their dominance over the issue isn’t a truly democratic representation. Perhaps not. But, there are a lot of politically minded people who aren’t technophiles and have their say on the internet. To ignore what’s going on would be fairly daft.
Nevertheless, there is a different cause for concern. For the moment, no spam comments have gotten through onto this site due to moderation and Akismet, but I just received one which was the usual incomprehensible nonsense and a link to an article praising Ron Paul.
I’m not for one second saying that this is indicative of all his supporters, but the fact that people will try and spam as part of the campaign should be worrying for both supporters and foes of Ron Paul. The internet is a very free medium, but that means it is open to abuse.
Perhaps what this is more a sign of is the zealous way in which the internet campaign is being run. The campaign is easily dominating talk of the future presidential elections, and good for the supporters, but they need to be careful that it doesn’t become intimidating. Just because enough people vote a Ron Paul story up on Digg doesn’t mean they’ll vote for him at an election. The incredible support for Ron Paul might well be one of the most damaging things to happen to his campaign.
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October 18th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Nice post, I’d not actually come across this guy yet, but American politics never ceases to amaze me with its Media focus, so the Internet is just the next step in that process. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you like) it’s far harder to control!
D