Hope(?)

At first, the news looked stunningly hopeful, a sign perhaps that Americans are not as angry and mean as their representatives seem to be.

As is often the case, this breath of sane humane politics emanates from Elizabeth Warren. She is running for the US Senate seat in Massachusetts against it's partial-term incumbent, male model Scott Brown. Against all odds, the two agreed to limit negative and attack ads in the campaign by pledging to pay penalties when organizations produce such ads. When a PAC attacks, it's favored candidate pays a price; it's a classic case of economic disincentive for bad behavior.

This week, Brown agreed to pay $1,000 dollars in penalty for an American Petroleum Institute ad. His campaign said that the ad did not really fit the criteria of the agreement, but that they would pay anyway. Before you give them too much of a pat on the back, remember that a kilobuck cannot possibly be half the value of an ad campaign in the Boston media market. But, it's something.

Cause for hope, even.

But perhaps an even more heavily discounted hope than Brown's penalty. The story was carried in the Washington Post (really, right here), where more than a few political junkies are known to congregate. Sadly, two days after it was posted, the story had garnered just 12 comments. This in a paper whose political articles often get thousands of comments.

Apparently, a story about civil discourse is not so inspiring. In a nation with over 100,000,000 people eligible to vote, a story about a breakthrough in politics got a dozen comments. From 8 individuals. Four of the comments are a peripheral argument about corporate personhood. This is closer to the level of interest appropriate to this blog, not a major international news outlet, the paper of record in our nation's capital.

But, I remain hopeful. The stories that get thousands of comments--were you to weed out the diatribes--may not get all that much more attention. Go the the article (click here if you are up-scroll averse), and give hope a chance with your comment, your tweet, your like, your digg, whatever it is you use to applaud. Give hope a chance.