McCain Tech Plan: The Only Vision is Backward-Looking

Home / Blogs

McCain Tech Plan: The Only Vision is Backward-Looking

	By Susan Crawford Professor, Cardozo Law School in New York City
	August 15, 2008 Views: 10,091 Comments: 1

So I’ve spent more time with the McCain tech plan today.

At a time when this country is suffering economically and looking for fundamental change, it looks as if Sen. McCain is in the back office having lunch with a bunch of accountants.

The heavy emphasis in the policy on tax cuts seems designed to appeal to people who equate lower taxes with progress. Haven’t we already had years of that kind of approach?

Where’s the vision? There’s no protection for *new* businesses from the depredations of the increasingly-powerful carriers who control internet access in this country. The policy is all about deal-making with the major forces the Senator is used to—“rewarding companies that offer high-speed Internet access services to low income customers by allowing these companies to offset their tax liability for the cost of this service,” “encourage private investment to facilitate the build-out of infrastructure.”

We tried this deal-making for years, and it’s been a disaster. We need leadership to get ourselves out of this mess, and as far as I can tell John McCain isn’t offering that.

There’s almost too much to say about the back-of-the-handedness of this policy, so I’ll stop here. This isn’t vision. It’s more like a wistful memoir about times gone by.

By Susan Crawford, Professor, Cardozo Law School in New York City

Filed Under

Comments

Susan, if you have any real criticism then that'd be great Suresh Ramasubramanian – Aug 16, 2008 3:07 AM

David Isenberg had something much more reasoned in his circleid post .. http://www.circleid.com/posts/88151_mccain_tech_policy/

Just for example. Simply throwing around memes like “backward looking” might do very well for an EFF blog or deeplink - but those aren’t meant to be detailed analysis, they’re for mobilizing opinion in action campaigns (and using the same techniques as guerilla political campaigns do .. http://www.circleid.com/posts/eff_use_of_propaganda_karl_rove/

Certainly not up to the normally high standards expected of a circleid post.

# 1 Reply | Link | Report Problems

The Weekly Wrap

More and more professionals are choosing to publish critical posts on CircleID from all corners of the Internet industry. If you find it hard to keep up daily, consider subscribing to our weekly digest. We will provide you a convenient summary report once a week sent directly to your inbox. It's a quick and easy read.

I make a point of reading CircleID. There is no getting around the utility of knowing what thoughtful people are thinking and saying about our industry.

VINTON CERF
Co-designer of the TCP/IP Protocols & the Architecture of the Internet