Posted by
Darrick Johnson on Thursday, January 10, 2008 10:21:00 PM
We often complain that our generals our fighting the last war. It is equally, if not more true, that our politicians are waging the last campaign.
The McCain-Feingold bill restriction campaign donations is terrible law, and a gross abrogation of free speech, (did the founders really intend for freedom of speech to extend to pornography, but not political statements on the eve of an election?) but I believe it will soon be irrelevant, and that's a good thing!
We all know why people give to politicians, some give for noble reasons, supporting the candidate they like, some for less noble reasons, attempting to purchase influence. But why do politicians need so much money? Because for the past several election cycles, campaigns have relied on incredibly expensive broadcast television commercials to get their message out. Those days are fading, and it's not hard to imagine a world where tacky political ads with ominous voice-overs have gone the way of the stump speec h from the caboose of a train.
We live in a world of TIVO, DVR, 500 channel sattelite packages, and YouTube. How long can networks continue to charge high prices for ads that no one watches? How long will politicians still focus their campaign on raising $5 million to air a tacky ad that cost them $5000? The next way to reach the masses hasn't been found yet, but YouTube offers a tremendous medium to get a substantive (see Fred's video below), quality message out, with almost no distribution costs. It hits a limited market, but it hits it well, and with incredible efficiency.
The end of the lame 30 second attack ad will be a good thing for our political process, a good thing for getting the money out of politics without a single government regulation. It can't come soon enough.
(I am Darrick Johnson, and I approved this message.)