Citizen Hacks

New at Reason: From the September issue, Joli Jensen puzzles over Herbert J. Gans' complex ideas on civic journalism.

Comments

[Concerned Citizen]

Jensen is off in her dismissal of the political process 220 years ago as not similar to today. I've read several accounts of late 18th/early 19th century US campaigns that share a lot with the modern campaign process, save the technology.

Even before the revolution, Washington's first campaign for the VA House of Burgesses featured free rum and beer in exchange for support...remember Gore people handing out cigarettes to homeless people in Milwaukee??

[Citizen]

As I understood it, Jensen's point was not so much to do with the mechanics of campaigning but with the content. Last night Grey Davis held a "Town Meeting" where he fielded questions on a range of topics: education, public safety, health care, etc. People now are less interested in the "character" of a candidate than in that character's opinion/goal/vision on particular issues. And in that way the campaigning could have been different. One campaign must demonstrate the integrity and trustworthiness of a person, the other must display all the "right" opinions. I don't know if this is an accurate historical view, but I think it's more akin to what Jensen was saying.