You've just made my case for me. Wasn't berb arguing that's not what people should be concentrating on to shake up the political power structure? Wasn't he trying to argue that it is a shame if that's what people actually base such switches on, in the face of all these vastly more important issues.
I don't think anyone has debated that 'case', have they? I know that is what I said in
Message 43. You said that it was nonpolitical and insignificant. I disagreed. On the nonpolitical side it seems you meant political to mean 'the functioning of gov't as encoded in law' and not 'relating to politics'.
if it actually is a crime and not a rules violation
Florida Department of Law Enforcement are conducting an inquiry to see if any of the messages occurred in their state and decide whether state law has been violated. The FBI are doing the same thing at the federal level, so I guess we'll be finding out the answer in good time.
Given ongoing reality, with so many real political issues, its significance as a political-- in your sense-- issue shrinks to nothing.
Sometimes events prove to be more significant than they should be compared with other seemingly more important affairs.
That's going to affect the country because it will effect the balance of power, in a potentially surprising area.
Well, I'd agree with what you just said. I'm not sure if you were meaning to add to my point or if I missed something.
I said this as support to my point that this is not an insignificant issue. Its significant. Probably not as significant as the media are making out, and the media are probably going to make it more significant than it is.
It's the fact that lawmakers and media are pushing the potentially criminal item as not only something more than it seems to be, but as a reason for political action, is where I see a problem.
I agree with that - a seeming constant truth about the relationship between democracy based politicians and a free press.
My hope'd be you'd catch more people by discussing flagging rights (like habeus corpus) than what a guy did using IMs to pages, and which party didn't "protect children" by stopping him from IMing.
But maybe I am wayyyyy out of the loop.
The problem is that the Democrats are not trying to get Democratic voters to agree with them, they are trying to get Republican voters to be outraged enough about the Republicans that they simply don't bother to vote. Republican voters have so far been relatively unperturbed with the Republican's attitude towards previously enshrined rights - perhaps especially where it concerns non-citizens. Republican voters, on the other hand, are very vocal when it comes to moral scandals - which is why a sex scandal can be more significant to the voting landscape than a rights scandal.