Blogging the Book: Al Gore’s "The Assault on Reason," Pt. II

Well, I reached the end and, no surprise here, Al thinks the Internet will set us free. I was also relieved to find that he did include extensive notes in the back of the book, but because he didn’t footnote as he went along, a reader would have exercise real patience and tenacity to source everything. Footnotes, Al, footnotes.

Over all, Al was preaching to the choir about the abuses of power by the Bush Administration. I don’t suppose too many conservatives would be willing to read a book by Al Gore regardless, but a bit more mea culpa about the flaws of the Clinton Administration might have widened the audience more. Still, Al does a darn good and convincing job of explaining that uncomfortable feeling that something’s gone wrong with our democracy. It’s a book that should be reaching a broad audience, especially among those who believe that whether they vote or who they vote for doesn’t matter because Washington will continue to ignore them. However, it’s exactly on that point that Al is weakest.

While he addresses how the disconnect between the will of the people and the actions of the government leads to detachment and disinterest, I wanted to see more about how to combat that, more about how to bring the disillusioned back to the conversation. It isn’t enough to say the Internet is out there; go forth and use it. To bring about real change, to bring vibrancy back to our democracy in America and work to repair our damaged reputation in the international community, we need to reach that 50% of the public that isn’t even registered to vote and the 50% of registered voters who regularly don’t vote. Democracy does not thrive when elections are determined by a vote that is absent 75% of the eligible voting population. A strategy to engage that 75% is as important to the marketplace of ideas as continued access to a neutral and unfettered Internet. When we have 75% of the people voting and participating, then we’ll have regained our democracy.

Someone inferred recently that, because the stock market is up and unemployment is down, we shouldn’t be concerned that our President believes he is beyond the rule of law; that provided the US is still an economic powerhouse, we should turn a deaf ear to our global neighbors concerned about the hubris and arrogance of our foreign policy; and that because we live in a post-9/11 world, we cannot expect to protect the same rights and freedoms that have been the hallmarks of our country for more than 200 years. I would argue that we need to ensure the strength of our democracy when we are fat, so that it will survive when we are thin; that it is difficult to business with countries alienated by misguided policy; and that our Constitution is not worth the parchment it was written on if we can only safeguard individual liberties in times of peace and security.

“These are the times that try men's souls… Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.”

-- Thomas Paine