Friday, October 12, 2007
Al Gore and Ron Paul
EJ Dionne said on Lehrer that Gore's success, emphasizing the issue of global warming long before it was popular with the masses, seeing it reach critical mass, resulting in a share of a Nobel Prize, is a success one seldom sees in a lifetime. That is true, and Dionne didn't even include the spectacle of the presidency being ripped from Gore's hands by a dysfunctional Supreme Court, and now Gore finds himself discussed as a potential candidate. Dionne said “Gore is too happy to run” and that again sounds right. With a Nobel Prize, an Academy Award, scads of Google money, it seems unlikely Gore will be running for anything. With all the success Gore appears to practically be purring. More likely he will just be hoping to be able to live 120 years — maybe life extension technologies will be the next Big Idea from Gore Inc.
Ron Paul was also on Lehrer. Paul's isolationist, populist exhortations — with an aura of libertarianism — is reminiscent of Ralph Nader, Ross Perot and Howard Dean; a frenzy of simple ideas expressed with enthusiasm can be deeply appealing to the young; aggregated propositions are by their nature demagogic — showing little concern for the labyrinth of the real world. Finally, Paul's energized supporters are more the story than Paul himself. Simple formulas don't really work, because they are simple, and if those simple formulas are successful, as Isaiah Berlin noted, you don't necessarily get what you bargained for. You would think younger people would learn. I guess they do, but by then they are older. Of course, most presidential terms end with a desperate yearning for major change and young energy can help in that. Dionne and Brooks also mentioned the widening income disparity in the country and how dangerous that is for social stability. Now there is an issue.
One thing of note: When Brooks and Dionne are the guests on Lehrer you feel ideas are actually being considered, rather than the default for media discussion — an exchange of slogans.