An Unusual Step: Political Endorsement

I usually prefer to stay away from politics, since both parties are being rather stupid most of the time these days. It might also be that my vote doesn’t count, at least in presidential elections (I can vote in either Kansas or North Dakota, either of which will go Republican). On that note, go to this site and search for “Party Differentiation and the Decision to Vote” by my friend Ian Ostrander.

But there’s nothing like a good old-fashioned petition on a topic of personal interest to get a disenchanted young voter to make an endorsement. Or rather, a good old-fashioned petition writ large (~one million signatures) thanks to the InterWeb. The problem is that it appears that Congress has proposed massive cuts in funding for public broadcasting (i.e. PBS, NPR). Personally, I think public broadcasting is one of the few places left with a decent claim to balanced, in-depth reporting on a wide variety of topics, many of global importance that are nevertheless overlooked by commercial news organizations because they don’t sell. (I’m sure Bob would argue with me on a lot of that, however.) There’s also the BBC. But anyway, if this sounds like a bad idea to you, check out the petition.

Yes, I am aware that MoveOn.org is sponsoring this. Yes, I am aware of their liberal bent and past affiliation with Howard Dean. Yes, I still will support them on this issue. If the conservatives will not stand to save public broadcasting, then I will stand with the liberals. And if Tom Vacek can be a liberal these days, then I think I can quite honorably ally myself with them.

Hey, if nothing else, my mentioning of politics in this post will bring a storm of comments to this blog.