The night of the Democratic "debate" one YouTubist appeared on-screen asking the following question (she was fully dressed): "If I can go out into any state and get the same triple-grande, nonfat, no-foam vanilla latte from Starbucks, why can't I go to any state and vote the same way?" Now this YouTubist obviously is a sophisticate when it comes to ordering coffee. Yet I submit that when she votes, or for that matter when she pronounces on politics, she is a moron.
Another YouTubist appeared on his home video strumming a guitar and singing about the tax code. No hint of alcohol or prohibited substances was detectable. Then he asked the aspiring presidents whether "one of y'all" would arrange a pardon for his recent speeding violation. Another misfit asked whether the candidates would support paying reparations to the heirs of American slaves. All the candidates handled this question gingerly, and one actually agreed that his Treasury Department would pony up. Sen. Clinton was asked about her womanliness, and Sen. Barack Obama was asked whether he is "authentically black."
Recently in a Wall Street Journal symposium on blogging, Tom Wolfe observed that "one by one, Marshall McLuhan's wackiest-seeming predictions come true. Forty years ago, he said that modern communications technology would turn the young into tribal primitives who pay attention not to objective 'news' reports but only to what the drums say."
"And there you have blogs," Wolfe continued. "The universe of blogs is a universe of rumors, and the tribe likes it that way."
With YouTube we have more than a universe of rumors. It is a universe of fears, angers, threats and megalomaniacal fantasies -- and the tribe likes it that way. Or I should say the Democratic candidates like it that way. Not one objected to the indignity of the CNN-YouTube "debate." All hope to lead America in time of war.