RE: candidate endorsement & civil discourse

["Stephen Cooke" <scooke@uidaho.edu>]

Dear Visionaries,
 To me the issue is not about endorsements or not, but about civil discourse
and the level of maturity of that discourse. If we can keep our emotionality
in check, then political endorsement, particularly as they relate to issues
of economic development are fair game as far as I am concern. Your values
are my facts. It helps me to know them and to learn to understand and to
accept them. For example, I have used this forum to endorse a policy
increased gun control, which is similar to a political endorsement of a
candidate. That discussion did/does get emotional at times and the
discussion is also informative and helpful.

 Perhaps one of the roles of this list server is to learn or re-discover how
to make an argument without being in one.

Steve Cooke

-----Original Message-----
From: bill london [mailto:bill_london@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 1999 1:44 PM
To: vision2020@moscow.com
Subject: candidate endorsement quandary

Here's a topic I would love to see discussed by more subscribers to this
list:

During the political campaign periods, should the Vision 2020 list include
"endorsements" or "non-endorsements" of political candidates?

Are those kinds of messages a turn-off for members or a valued service?

We've had a few comments on this subject already.  I would like to see more.

Vision 2020 serves as a community forum, like the soapbox in the park.
Nobody screens or manages the postings.  Civil discourse is the goal, and
with few exceptions, has been the rule.

I fear that encouraging political candidate endorsements on 2020 would
degenerate into a pathetic name-calling mess.  But what if the opposite is
correct?  Perhaps we would all learn more about the reputations and
experiences of the candidates.  Maybe all we would read is petty third-hand
gossip and innuendo.  Perhaps the scrutiny would be positive, or perhaps it
would scare people away from offering to serve.  Maybe...

Several council candidates posted their ideas and discussed their
motivations on the 2020 list during this campaign.  This, it seems to me, is
different from their supporters or detractors posting messages endorsing
candidates.  Candidates' own messages seems to me to be a good use of this
community forum.  Please consider that aspect as well.  Perhaps you
disagree...

I encourage you to post your ideas about encouraging discussions about
specific candidates, or candidates' own postings on community issues, on the
Vision 2020 list.

One use of the 2020 list that seemed to work is the questionaire we
developed and then asked of all candidates. We then reported all responses
on the 2020 list and on a website donated by FSR. The responses were more
thorough than I had expected.  Several 2020 subscribers (as well as several
candidates) contacted me to support that process.  I do expect to see, in
future political campaign periods, continued use of the Vision 2020 list as
a forum for those candidate questionaires.

BL

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