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>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 inte

>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.
- joelhaus 15y ago
  I respectfully disagree that politicians can't take a strong position on an issue and still win an election. It's our responsibility to be persistent/loud enough so that they feel the need to answer, but if you've got a better suggestion, I'm all ears.

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.

joelhaus 15y ago
I respectfully disagree that politicians can't take a strong position on an issue and still win an election. It's our responsibility to be persistent/loud enough so that they feel the need to answer, but if you've got a better suggestion, I'm all ears.