"His fanbase is entirely netroots... they're not frequent voters if ever. A lot of the people I spoke to never voted for a candidate, but this guy turned me on."
Wayne Garcia on Ron Paul.
Garcia makes the mistake of thinking Ron Paul's Myspace friends are netroots. They are not. The Republican Party, and it's current presidential candidates, have yet to provide anything resembling on organization. Gene Smith is also known as Gatordem. He has worked on Democratic campaigns in the Tampa area for years. Boy wonder Ray Seaman is highly active in the Florida Democratic Party. These are people that hardly can be accused of rarely voting.
Garcia and Jim Johnson have no idea what the netroots is about because they aren't apart of it. Progressive bloggers don't give a shit about Myspace polls. It is about making the media cover issues, raising awareness and money for candidates.
Getting Trent Lott to step down as Senate Majority Leader was a result of action taken by progressive bloggers. The Note was the only news site to mention Lott's racist comments at Strom Thurmond's birthday party. No network broadcasts covered the story. Josh Marshall and Duncan Black read The Note and wrote about the Lott story. Both correctly guessed that John Kerry's expensive haircut would get more media exposure. Other bloggers then covered Lott. The attention was so great that Lott then because a story. The rest is history.
Howard Dean's netroots campaign made him the frontrunner because of exposure and online fundraising. Dean proved that the internet can't stop a candidate from embarrassing himself on television. It did give him the potential tools to win. Democracy for America was created from the Dean campaign. The site encourages Democrats and activist to meetup with other likeminded individuals to raise money and GOTV. Not vote in online polls. Ron Paul has nothing resembling the netroots. For Garcia to call it that is a mistake.
What the netroots does is even the playing field for Democrats. For too long the Donkeys had nothing to compete with corporate fundraising and the right-wing echo chamber of talk radio and Fox News.
How do I know all this? I am part of the netroots. I used netroots organization to draw attention to certain stories. The police-handling of the University of Tampa rape and Rachel Moran's offensive post against the homeless are examples. I also was in contact with the Kathy Castor campaign last election and work with the 527 group Florida Progressive Coalition.
Short answer: we could play six degrees of separation with all my netroots connections.
well HELL YEAH.
ReplyDeleteI was pretty amazed when I started reading you all of the things you are involved in and have lended your name to.
Of course, now I take you for granted !
NO ! I don't .. when you were gone I missed you awful !
"fanbase is netroots" makes no sense...it's not right; it's not ironic; it's just acutely wrong.
ReplyDeleteFirst, you are correct that I am not part of the netroots. There aren't enough people online on the conservative side to be as effective as the liberals have been.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I know and understand the netroots. I have seen their effectiveness. That is why I bemoan the fact the Grand Old Party is still stuck in the last century.
I can say this: the rise of conservative talk radio in the 1990's was the result of President Clinton. The rise of a liberal netroots is the result of President Bush. If (when?) a Democrat is in the White House, the netroots will be less effective - just as talk radio has been less effective in the 2000s.
Finally, I will close by asking just how effective either a liberal or conservative netroots can really be at the state or local level. There aren't enough people reading local blogs -- and there aren't enough (any?) local bloggers doing anything resembling reporting.
from reference.com:
ReplyDeleteNetroots
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Cite This Source
Netroots is a recent term coined to describe political activism organized through blogs and other online media, including wikis and social network services. The word is a portmanteau of Internet and grassroots, reflecting the technological innovations that supposedly set netroots techniques apart from other forms of political participation. In the United States, the term is used mainly in left-leaning circles.
The term necessarily overlaps with the related ideas of e-democracy, open politics and participatory democracy, all of which are somewhat more specific, better defined, and more widely accepted. Netroots outreach is a campaign-oriented activity that uses the web for complementing more traditional campaign activities, such as collaborating with grassroots activism that involves get-out-the-vote and organizing through interconnecting local and regional efforts, such as Meetup, and the netroots-grassroots coalition that propelled the election of Howard Dean to the DNC Chair in January, 2005.
Advocates claim that the essential quality of the netroots is its flatness and inter-linked web connectiveness : that it constitutes communication points that reach out to influence traditional media, but is not directed outward from any one point. Through events like a blogswarm, the netroots displays non-hierarchical and decentralized features. Detractors point out that 'connectiveness' is not a word.
Jim, I pretty much agree with your statements. I do occasional reporter, but would never dare to call myself a reporter. That role goes to people like Josh Marshall.
ReplyDeleteTalk radio actually started in the 80s. I would say the Reagan years helped the Right and the Gipper doing away with the equal time law.
Fox News and the Weekly Standard's rise were certainly a result of the Clinton years.
The Right got a head start on blogs with Instapundit and Andrew Sullivan. 9-11 increased those sites' popularity. The reason the Right didn't establish a netroots is because the GOP is built top to bottom. The Left works the opposite.
Bush is only a part of the netroots rise. My side was equally upset with the Democratic establishment wanting to please the DLC, New Republic, and Beltway pundits. Netroots candidates such as Howard Dean and Jim Webb could care less about these people. That's why James Carville wanted Dean fired from the DNC. Carville puts keeping the establishment (and himself) in place than his party's best interest. That also explains why the netroots hasn't embraced Hillary.
The netroots can not win elections by itself. Just as the Christian Right can not win elections for Republicans. Both are important to their party's well-being, but they don't replace good candidates. People vote for the person. Not Daily Kos or Focus For the Family.
Good post, but FPC isn't a 527, we'll be a LLC when we register.
ReplyDeleteJim, blogs aren't meant to take the place of reporting as much as they are to take the place of editorial pages. Reporting happens on some blogs from time to time, but it isn't the focus. I'd suggest that the interviews FPC does with candidates are reporting, though.
someone up there was the one who said that blogs would/should replace newspapers.
ReplyDeleteGOD give me some consistency.
flip flopping is for public officials.
And EVERY "realtor']]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] in tampa.
flip flop: the new thief in town