DNC Debates

Posted on: Nov 4 2019 / Written by: Brett Lunger

“Watch the DNC debate?  Naahh, why waste my time?  I’ll check MSNBC and the New York Times the next day.  They will tell me all I need to know.”  Really? 

Say what?  Are you really going to surrender your intellectual sovereignty to someone else, someone whose reporting might be less than objective, someone who might be seeking an agenda? 

Whoa, take a deep breath.  I am not saying that the New York Times or MSNBC has any intention of influencing opinions and attitudes.  But they might.  And if they do, do you really want to be manipulated by those who have a preferred outcome? 

Don’t risk it.  Don’t be lazy.  Go ahead, watch the debate.  It is not as painful as you might think.  You don’t have to watch it live.  You can always record it and then fast forward when questions are directed to the pretenders who have no chance of winning the nomination. 

John F Kennedy, in his remarks at Vanderbilt University on May 18, 1963, spoke of the “educated citizen,” saying “He (the educated citizen) knows that only an educated and informed people will be a free people, that the ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” 

Winston Churchill took a more cynical viewpoint.  He once said, “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” 

Don’t be an “average voter.”  Be an “engaged voter.”  Make the effort to be informed, not by the opinions of others, but by your own observation and intellect.  We will all benefit from that.