Carville and Matalin Debate Politics at MCLA
 Mary Matalin looks into a crowd featuring big players in Berkshire County politics. |
Democrat Carville and Republican Matalin looked down the middle of the aisle at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' Church Street Center Monday and told students that the younger generation has the power to get involved.
"If I were a young person, I would feel optimistic, but I wouldn't feel optimistic unless I got involved and made sure that I did things to effectuate that kind of change," Carville said. "It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness."
That thought was echoed by Matalin. "We don't disagree on everything; in fact, we were thinking about writing a new book '20 Years Later and 20 Things We Agree On' but I get to two and I give up," she said. "We've seen in practice in New Orleans is the power of young people who are fearless and practical."
It's young people who are leading the charge in New Orleans, where the couple lives, to revive the city that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, Matalin said.
"One of my big messages here tonight is, understand the capacity of people to turn things around. You see it time and time and time again," Carville said. "Look at what you did with this community. You came in, you had lost everything, you got this museum built, you got the college and you are building around it. You take a shot and people are coming together [and do] things."
The college brought the couple to the county for a political talk that covered a wide spectrum of issues. From the size of government to the changing face of media, the media personalities and political consultants went toe to toe for about two hours. The full auditorium included high-profile audience members such as former Gov. Jane Swift, Mayor Richard Alcombright, former mayors John Barrett III and Richard Lamb, state Rep. Paul Mark, D-Hancock, and other well-known figures in Northern Berkshires politics.
"We're going to have a pretty big debate coming up here. A really big one and sometimes the best way to educate people is to have a clash of ideals," Carville said.
For the 2012 presidential election, Carville said he believes President Obama is in the perfect position to be re-elected. According to Matalin, it will not be that easy; she said there is a growing number of independent voters who have more of a conservative philosophy.
 Carville believes optimism can come from being involved in creating change. |
Matalin said the conservative philosophy that has always been in the country led to the tea party movement and that wil grow to be an even greater force in American politics. The decentralized movement became organized through passing information with the latest technology. It has gone through all the trials of being misrepresented to the public, she said.
Carville, on the other hand, sees the movement as "bees that sting and then die." While Carville said he likes that citizens started the movement, he said he does not see it lasting long.
Just because more information and technology are available to people does not mean the public is smarter or better informed, Carville said. More opinions are being passed along than actual news, he said.
"Do the students today know more than the students that went to college in the '60s? I would suggest to you no. One danger is that as you have proliferation of news sources, you can always use the news to validate your own point of view," Carville said. "We need to get back to where people are enlightened and not validated. People use information like a drunk uses a lamppost – for support, not illumination."
It is expensive to produce the news but opinions are cheap. Currently, the people who are writing actual stories are not making money and websites that are aggregating the information are, he said. More and more companies will stop paying for news production, he said.
Matalin disagreed, citing that 67 percent of the general public feel they are highly informed. New technology is presenting information in a much easier way, she said, which will make everything deeper and denser. Business models will adjust to survive and weed out reporting that is too opinionated, she said.
"The framework, narrative, the message, we don't care if it is going through the digital system or if it is still coming out of Corporal Cueball's mouth over there," Matalin said.
The two disagreed on campaign finance as well. Carville proposed that members of Congress should not be allowed to accept campaign funds from companies. An incumbent's challenger could raise money, and the public would pay 85 percent of the challenger's funds to the incumbent. This would solve the problem of lobbyists influencing politics, he said.
Matalin said that idea was impractical and could never work. Simply making campaign finances transparent would do the job because the public could use that information to decide whether to support the candidate or not, she argued.
