Comment 67485

By Undustrial (registered) - website | Posted August 05, 2011 at 13:37:53 in reply to Comment 67473

Nobody said it was going to be easy. Nor is it about whether the public is "worth" consulting with. It's his job, and not an easy job to get.

It isn't the public's job to change for politicians. Nor is it our job to sugar-coat our arguments for the sake of their comfort and fragile egos. Politics isn't "nice".

And yes, there are an enormous number of "crazy" people who speak up in these debates. Crazy people are part of the public too. Public engagement doesn't mean you get to pick and choose who gets to speak. And while I don't care to listen to rants about chemtrails, far too many sound arguments have been rejected in the past because the people advocating them were depicted as "crazy", or "having too much time on their hands".

The reason I'm so passionate about this is because it has a very profound negative impact on democracy. When Rob Ford decides he doesn't feel like dealing with "advocacy groups", he gains a small bit of comfort at the expense of the voices of thousands of people. And those people don't have the option of simply dismissing what Rob Ford has to say.

P.S. Rob Ford isn't too "Godwin", is he? I'll agree, the Qadaffi remark was totally over-the-top (and definitely strays into Godwin territory). There is one area, though, where Godwin's law becomes somewhat blurry, and that's discussions of the connection between madness and power. Sadly, the correlation tends to hold up very well in extremes, with unbelievably horrific consequences.

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