Candidates, elected officials and the Internet

From an email to a friend and associate:

Accessibility, transparency and responsiveness manifest themselves in internet communications to a degree of completeness and efficiency unlike anything else in human history. The internet is an egalitarian realm that inspires the imaginations of people who value a vigorous exchange of ideas and opinions.

When candidates or elected officials decline to make themselves accessible participants, it marks them as insular, incurious and obsolete. I am well enough toward the long end of middle age that I can understand the fear of becoming an irrelevant relic and how easily that can become paralyzing, but becoming vigorously active in this contemporary medium is well within the capabilities of anyone not frozen in time. It does not require strength, endurance, good health or boundless energy—just a little curiosity and a simple willingness. Without some kind of infirmity that would disqualify one from public office in the first place, there are only unflattering reasons for not actively participating.

I should have also added that a candidate or elected official who is not capably using the Internet cannot possibly be fully informing herself on the issues of the day, leaving her decision making less than adequate.