Chris & I had a talk this weekend about Joe the Plumber. We both believe what has been done to Joe, who is just a citizen who asked a question of a Presidential Candidate is ridiculous and unfair. Joe didn't ask to become a symbol. He certainly didn't ask to be the focus of a media witchhunt - and that's exactly what has happened to him. I find the whole thing chilling. I don't care what side of the Presidential campaign you are on - what happened to Joe should disturb you.
Iowahawk has a post up regarding Joe which does a great job of expressing my feelings:
We've all witnessed a lot of insanity in American politics over the last few years. Up until the last few days, none of it has seriously bothered me; hey, just more grist for the satire mill. But after witnessing the media's blitzkreig on Joe 'the Plumber' Wurzelbacher, I can only muster anger, and no small amount of fear.
Politicians -- Sarah Palin, Bill Clinton, et al. -- obviously have to put up with some rude, nasty shit, but it's right there in the jobs description. Joe the Plumber is different. He was a guy tossing a football with his kid in the front yard of his $125,000 house when a politician picked him out as a prop for a 30 second newsbite for the cable news cameras. Joe simply had the temerity to speak truth (or, if you prefer, an uninformed opinion) to power, for which the politico-media axis apparently determined that he must be humiliated, harassed, smashed, destroyed. The viciousness and glee with which they set about the task ought to concern anyone who still cares about citizen participation, and freedom of speech, and all that old crap they taught in Civics class before politics turned into Narrative Deathrace 3000, and Web 2.0 turned into Berlin 1932.0.
In solidarity with Joe Wurzelbacher, I have added the "I am Joe" graphic to the bottom of our blog.
