Can Blogs Revolutionize Progressive Politics?

[Algorem]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2485/

By Lakshmi Chaudhry

We have no interest in being anti-establishment,” says Matt Stoller, a blogger at the popular Web site MyDD.com. “We’re going to be the establishment.”

That kind of flamboyant confidence has become the hallmark of blog evangelists who believe that blogs promise nothing less than a populist revolution in American politics. In 2006, at least some of that rhetoric is becoming reality. Blogs may not have replaced the Democratic Party establishment, but they are certainly becoming an integral part of it. In the wake of John Kerry’s defeat in the 2004 presidential elections, many within the Democratic leadership have embraced blog advocates’ plan for political success, which can be summed up in one word: netroots.

This all-encompassing term loosely describes an online grassroots constituency that can be targeted through Internet technologies, including e-mail, message boards, RSS feeds and, of course, blogs, which serve as organizing hubs. In turn, these blogs employ a range of features —discussion boards, Internet donations, live e-chat, social networking tools like MeetUp, online voting—that allow ordinary citizens to participate in politics, be it supporting a candidate or organizing around a policy issue. Compared to traditional media, blogs are faster, cheaper, and most importantly, interactive, enabling a level of voter involvement impossible with television or newspapers.

No wonder, then, that many in Washington are looking to blogs and bloggers to counter the overwhelming financial and ideological muscle of the right—especially in an election year. Just 18 months ago, the New York Times Magazine ran a cover story depicting progressive bloggers as a band of unkempt outsiders, thumbing their nose at party leadership. But now, it’s the party leaders themselves who are blogging. Not only has Senate Minority leader Harry Reid started his own blog—Give ‘em Hell Harry—and a media “war room” to “aggressively pioneer Internet outreach,” he’s also signed up to be the keynote speaker at the annual conference of the top political blog, Daily Kos...

[MostlyLurks]

1. Not to toot my own hypothetical horn...

And yet I will.

I posted a long monologue a few days ago (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=304307&mesg_id=304307)
that, at the time, I felt was too self-indulgent to really matter. But the more I think about it, the more I think it's a crucial hypothesis on when and IF liberals will have a resurgence. And I don't think the blogs, AAR, or any of the other components we hear about so frequently are the most important element.

Anyway, click the link if you're interested. Sorry to thread-jack.

Mostly

[Demeter]

2. To Become the Establishment

You have to be loud, you have to be in the right place, and while it helps if you are right, it's even better if you appeal to the innate, unthinking prejudices of your listeners. We can't get the first two going for us, let alone the biggest and best and last one. Being right just isn't enough in the short term. It isn't even enough in the long term, if the historians are paid shillls.


It used to be that America was prejudiced towards the common man or woman, the little people, striving with little more than a good idea and some famly backing. Now America is worse than Europe in the time of Empire, bowing, scraping and throwing coins at the pretentiously ostentatious.