Sunday, February 21, 2010

Video Game Friendly Politician Won 2010 CPAC Poll!

Earlier this week, FoxNews.com reported that the Conservative Political Action Conference was going to use video games, "...to attract and entertain..." college-aged contingents.
Kevin McCullough told FoxNews.com, "We're gonna have the most popular games.  There'll be Guitar Hero.  There'll be Dance Revolution.  There'll be Call of Duty."

For those of you wondering what CPAC is, via CPAC.org, "...the Conservative Political Action Conference is the nation's largest gathering of conservatives annually.  It is a project of ACUF and its largest annual conference."

I found it interesting that the CPAC was using video games to attract the college-aged voters.

Each year at the CPAC, they have a straw poll for attendees.
One question in particular this year read:
"Thinking ahead to the 2012 Presidential election, who would you vote for as the next Republican nominee for President?"

Which candidate did the attendees select for the 2012 Republican nominee?
The results read, "TX Congressman Ron Paul".  He won first place with 31% of the votes.

Who is Ron Paul?
(this guy!)

I found it even more interesting Saturday night when a friend called to let me know Rep. Ron Paul won the CPAC poll.  Rep. Paul was interviewed on G4TV during the 2008 presidential election process.  He seems to think the video game industry, as well as others, are better off managing themselves, without the federal government regulating it.

When Ron Paul was interviewed on G4TV during the 2008 presidential election cycle, on June 27, 2007, the G4TV host asked, "...I'm wondering what role that you think the government should play when it comes to policing television, or movies, music, even video games?"(emphasis added)

Rep. Ron Paul responded, "Well, I would go to the Constitution.  I would go to the First Amendment and it reminds us that Congress shall write no law.  And I think if the Congress shall write no law regarding the freedom of speech and expression, the courts shouldn't do it either.  It should not be in the realm of Washington(D.C.) politics to regulate any form of expression, whether it's in books, or whether it's radio or television, or on the internet."

The host played "devil's advocate" jokingly, and then said how many people use the, "What about the children", type of lines when it comes to justifying government regulation.
Rep. Ron Paul replied, "Well then I would suggest to them, the responsibility falls on the parents, and on individuals.  If the individual is old enough, they can pick and choose what they want to look at, but children should be the responsibility of parents."

I'm glad to see a politician, that prefers the government keeping its nose out of the video game industry(and others), win something like this.  Maybe there are thinking politicians in Washington D.C.!

Question:
Did you know who Rep. Ron Paul was before this?  What do you think of his answers to the questions?  Agree or disagree?
I wonder, was there a connection between Rep. Ron Paul being on G4TV and the CPAC using video games to attract younger voters, as the reason Rep. Ron Paul won the straw poll this year?



If you want to know more about Rep. Ron Paul, you can visit http://www.house.gov/paul/bio.shtml for a brief bio.
If you're wondering who else was in the poll, Rep. Ron Paul beat out other politicians like former MA Gov. Mitt Romney, former AK Gov. Sarah Palin, and former AR Gov. Mike Huckabee.

To watch the entire Question/Answer session on Attack of the Show with Rep. Ron Paul, click the link below!
http://g4tv.com/videos/16731/The-Loop-One-on-One-with-Ron-Paul-/

4 comments:

  1. Congrats on the win, Ron Paul. It's a shame a meeting today doesn't necessarily mean anything in a matter of months, weeks, or days. That's politics for you.

    Anyway, the video game industry already has a version of regulation in the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB). I am a big fan of the Mortal Kombat series, and it is one of the reasons this board even exists. I think ratings for games are great, but I still know parents that either don't read the ratings or don't understand what the different rating symbols mean. I believe that it is not up to our schools or government to raise our children. The ratings labeled on the games and independent research by parents should be enough.

    Oh, and I like the blog re-design.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're correct, the video game industry's regulation is the ESRB, though it hasn't even been around for 20 years.

    The video game industry and the movie industry both regulate themselves, and parents either can use the guidelines or not. Though I will say it seems most parents ignore it and kids do what they want these days.

    Thanks for the comment(and the info)!

    ReplyDelete
  3. ...and Ron Paul can sing too.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fngEnIkz44&feature=PlayList&p=kLi6BpF1IZ4

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Scott:
    Thanks for that awesome link!
    I'd heard of this "technique", but this was the first I actually saw it/heard it in a video.

    ReplyDelete

Keep the comments clean. Rated "E" for Everyone. :)

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