Great seven-plus-minutes video of Ted conversing with an Iowa farmer about ethanol and subsidies generally. The guy starts out with a hot-head demeanor but is calmed down and has accepted Ted's invitation to consider the broader scope by the end of their exchange.
My only problem with the whole conversation is that, due to the nature of contemporary politics, Ted feels compelled to start his answer to the guy's in-your-face demands with the stock line about "Let me assure you, no one will fight harder for the American farmer" and spend a couple more minutes of their time together setting the table for his core argument about how the government should not be picking winners and losers in the energy marketplace.
In a world of citizens adequately intellectually prepared for such a discussion, Ted could have leapt right in with the essential truth: subsidies distort the market value of anything, so it's a wash or pretty close to it that subsidies help this farmer since they are paid for by taxes which he pays along with his fellow citizens.
And followed up with a ringing reminder that government imposing such market distortions is tyranny - no different than when it is done in North Korea or Cuba.
Anyway, Ted got that point, in a gentler, less direct way, across, and the farmer seems convinced or nearly so, by the end of their conversation, so it was ultimately constructive.
But speaking of demeanor, compare Ted's calmness, commitment to a sound structuring of his argument, and the articulate manner (combined with the personable touch, as evidenced by his invitation to the farmer to go across the room and also have a conversation with a prominent Iowa ethanol businessman) with which he gets his points across, to the way Squirrel-Hair would have dealt one-on-one with the concerned voter. But, of course, S-H is on board with ethanol subsidies, at least this week.
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