The only thoughts I can finish these days seem to be belated ones. Here I am slightly expanding on a “tweet” of mine in reaction to the news of arch-conservative William F. Buckley passing away.
Mostly fond and polite remembrances were aired across the media.
But in an often included common clip, which I heard it on NPR and others heard or saw elsewhere, was an excerpt from a debate between Buckley and Noam Chomsky on Buckley’s Firing Line program.
On ABC News tonight, a report on the Republican field of candidates for President quoted a Texas diner goer as not seeing “a clear leader.”
Nothing else was shown of what this individual said, so perhaps he had a more nuanced view. But I wonder why people say things like that and I wonder why the press focuses on that. It seems like elections would be much more functional, primary elections especially, if you lined up behind the candidate who most represented your concerns and then voted for them—and then you found out who the leader was.