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Everyone needs to make sure each candidate answers two questions during the upcoming election cycle: 1. Do you believe higher speed internet service will lea

Everyone needs to make sure each candidate answers two questions during the upcoming election cycle: 1. Do you believe higher speed internet service will lead to a better jobs economy? 2. What policies will you pursue to so that more Americans have internet access comparable to our global counterparts? E.g. Germany where speeds are 10x's as fast at 2/3 the price?

webXL 15y ago
On what rational basis are these two questions pertinent to managing the executive branch of the United States government?
- joelhaus 15y ago
  To answer your question; because any federal law passed by congress in an effort to improve consumer choice in the ISP market would require the signature of the president without a supermajority. However, my call for answers to these questions applies equally to candidates for congressional, state and local offices too. Unless you feel the current regulatory structure has no responsibility for getting us in this situation, how are they not pertinent?
  - webXL 15y ago
    You use phrases like "improve consumer choice" and "regulatory structure" as if it was possible for your interests to be aligned with those of the regulators and politicians. Nevermind those being regulated are donating many, many times more to politicians than your interest group is, to either not be regulated or regulate their competitors out of the market.
    - joelhaus 15y ago
      It's called democracy. I'm sure there's an excellent civics course online somewhere.
jerf 15y ago
Pshaw, those questions wouldn't even make any halfway viable candidate blink. "Your concerns are very important to me. Those concerns are the concerns of all right-thinking Americans and vital to the continued success of America. My top priority in office will be to address your concerns by making sure to throw lots of money at your concerns in ways that no amount of further questions will get me to concretely pin down, because I've had decades of practice at dodging this sort of question. Who is the next person who needs some concern addressed with vague promises of papering over the problem with taxpayer money?" Since any politician will say the same thing, there's no information in the answer to those questions.
- joelhaus 15y ago
  >Since any politician will say the same thing, there's no information in the answer to those questions. Perhaps, but how would you (and others with vested interests in better internet) react to a politician that gave a thoughtful and coherent response? The point of these questions is to give the politicians an opportunity to win over a very influential and growing segment of the population. I suspect that a single strong response from a politician would have a domino effect and force the others to answer in-kind. Based on how most of us view politics in the U.S., it's easy to be cynical about these sorts of things, so I can understand why you wouldn't want to put in the effort. However, the iron is hot and it seems foolish to waste an opportunity to hold our elected officials feet to the fire.
  - jerf 15y ago
    "Perhaps, but how would you (and others with vested interests in better internet) react to a politician that gave a thoughtful and coherent response?" Please understand that I am not trying to "score points" here with a joke, but my honest reaction when I encounter this is "(S)He's never going to make it past the nomination process." Which so far has a 100% success rate. Politicians do that because otherwise they don't get elected. One of the core competencies of a modern politician is to have their feet held to the fire, and dance away from it unscathed. I'm not kidding; if you can't do that, you will not reach the national stage... or at least you won't stay for long. The reason is that whatever substantial answer you give to a question like that pisses off more people than you excite. On the other hand, a vague answer excites those whom you want to excite as they will read into it what they want to see, but doesn't piss anybody off because it's really just a generality. If you really want to accomplish something, step one is understanding the landscape. You can do things, but trying to get straight answers out of politicians is not step one of any plan that will work.

webXL 15y ago

On what rational basis are these two questions pertinent to managing the executive branch of the United States government?

joelhaus 15y ago
To answer your question; because any federal law passed by congress in an effort to improve consumer choice in the ISP market would require the signature of the president without a supermajority. However, my call for answers to these questions applies equally to candidates for congressional, state and local offices too. Unless you feel the current regulatory structure has no responsibility for getting us in this situation, how are they not pertinent?
- webXL 15y ago
  You use phrases like "improve consumer choice" and "regulatory structure" as if it was possible for your interests to be aligned with those of the regulators and politicians. Nevermind those being regulated are donating many, many times more to politicians than your interest group is, to either not be regulated or regulate their competitors out of the market.
  - joelhaus 15y ago
    It's called democracy. I'm sure there's an excellent civics course online somewhere.

jerf 15y ago

Pshaw, those questions wouldn't even make any halfway viable candidate blink. "Your concerns are very important to me. Those concerns are the concerns of all right-thinking Americans and vital to the continued success of America. My top priority in office will be to address your concerns by making sure to throw lots of money at your concerns in ways that no amount of further questions will get me to concretely pin down, because I've had decades of practice at dodging this sort of question. Who is the next person who needs some concern addressed with vague promises of papering over the problem with taxpayer money?" Since any politician will say the same thing, there's no information in the answer to those questions.

joelhaus 15y ago
>Since any politician will say the same thing, there's no information in the answer to those questions. Perhaps, but how would you (and others with vested interests in better internet) react to a politician that gave a thoughtful and coherent response? The point of these questions is to give the politicians an opportunity to win over a very influential and growing segment of the population. I suspect that a single strong response from a politician would have a domino effect and force the others to answer in-kind. Based on how most of us view politics in the U.S., it's easy to be cynical about these sorts of things, so I can understand why you wouldn't want to put in the effort. However, the iron is hot and it seems foolish to waste an opportunity to hold our elected officials feet to the fire.
- jerf 15y ago
  "Perhaps, but how would you (and others with vested interests in better internet) react to a politician that gave a thoughtful and coherent response?" Please understand that I am not trying to "score points" here with a joke, but my honest reaction when I encounter this is "(S)He's never going to make it past the nomination process." Which so far has a 100% success rate. Politicians do that because otherwise they don't get elected. One of the core competencies of a modern politician is to have their feet held to the fire, and dance away from it unscathed. I'm not kidding; if you can't do that, you will not reach the national stage... or at least you won't stay for long. The reason is that whatever substantial answer you give to a question like that pisses off more people than you excite. On the other hand, a vague answer excites those whom you want to excite as they will read into it what they want to see, but doesn't piss anybody off because it's really just a generality. If you really want to accomplish something, step one is understanding the landscape. You can do things, but trying to get straight answers out of politicians is not step one of any plan that will work.