Thomas Paine

When no one is buying your agenda (Cap and Tax, Socialized Medicine, Amnesty, Stimulus) lash out at the people who are not buying what you are selling. Via AFP:

“You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank all that high on the truth meter,” Obama said at Hampton University, Virginia.

“With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation,” Obama said.

He bemoaned the fact that “some of the craziest claims can quickly claim traction,” in the clamor of certain blogs and talk radio outlets.

“All of this is not only putting new pressures on you, it is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy.” (emphasis added)

This is nothing new. Remember the ‘Fishy Emails’?

Ordinary citizens printing, promoting  and sharing information and their points of view is a tradition that reaches back to Colonial America:

Beginning around 1760 and continuing at a quickening pace, the colonists began taking part in a great public argument — about the rights of Englishmen, the nature of civil society, and the limits of power. What began as a trickle of protest grew into a torrent of polemic.

Hundreds upon hundreds of pamphlets were printed in the colonies between 1760 and 1776, providing the intellectual setting for the debate over independence. Those writings — and their authors — played a role that was at least as important as established newspapers in giving expression to the growing political crisis.

The pamphlets were crucial to the rebellion because they were cheap, because they presented provocative arguments, and because it was impossible for the royal authorities to find their authors and stop them. The authors of the pamphlets were not professional writers, nor were they printers. They were lawyers, farmers, ministers, merchants, or — in some cases — men whose true identities are still unknown. It was a well-established practice in colonial times for writers to use pen names, even when writing on non-controversial subjects.

I guess Obama would rather use the “Chicago Way” to silence and discredit his detractors rather than provide an agenda that Americans will support.