Slashdot Mirror
Politicians Catch on to Blogging
Jason Jardine wrote to mention a C|Net report on an increase in the use of blogs by politicians in the U.S. capitol. From the article: "Just a year ago, a DailyKos posting from someone like John Kerry would have been all but unheard of, and blogging of any kind by members of Congress was almost nonexistent. But now that dynamic is starting to change, and slowly, members of the House of Representatives and the Senate are beginning to appreciate the value of blogs. 'When I reach out to the blog community, it gives me an opportunity to begin a dialogue with an extremely politically sophisticated and active community that I otherwise might not be able to reach,' Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., wrote in an e-mail to CNET News.com."
If you really believe that the pols themselves are actually writing, or even reading these, I've got a bridge in Manhattan I'll let you have very cheap. This is a staffer job.
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Modern electoral politics is all about leverging centralized media influence on people who are too lazy to find their own sources of info. Bloggin is just the opposite -- it allows people to seek the opinions of strangers rather than just passively receive them. It won't work for the mass-distribution of the lies whose sole intent is to empower corruption that has become modern political process.
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This all start with the Howard Dean campaign using blogging and other online tools to raise money. Now other politicians are catching on to how they can use it. Blogging is old news to slashdotters but I'm sure there are a lot of politicians who still would ask, "What's a blog again?" In the next few years (maybe in '08) I predict someone will tap into the power of wikis for campaigning and fund-raising purposes. But let's let them get their heads around blogs first :-)
Bradley Holt
What's the big difference between a politician's blog and their already sanitized websites? I'm sure that even if they are the ones writing entries, they have them reviewed before posting.
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It may also be a way to bypass the more common venue of television, which some argue is becoming increasingly controlled by Republican interests. Newspapers are generally seen as more liberal, though readership is declining across the board. Regardless of who controls the big television news outlets, I think it's extremely valuable to have a broad range of methods for politicians to reach constituents.
A John Kerry diary on DailyKos would obviously have been written by a staffer as would most "by" various Senators, but posts from House representatives and just about any candidate usually are written by the actual politician in question. My Congressman, Jim McDermott, even responds to comments to his posts.
I was having a conversation with a friend of mine who is a political science major. He raised the point that in 10-20 years, politicians might regret what they had written in blogs. Imagine if John Q Polly is running for congressman, and someone digs up an old LiveJournal entry from back in his college days where he says something like "Screw the military. Every one of those dead US soldiers got what they deserved by working for the man". A stupid, impulsive comment which if brought to light would probally destroy his chances at office. 20-30 years ago his father might have said something like that in an editorial for the Berkley Daily, but on a web log it's a lot more accessable. Just a random thought.
Is if they actually got involved full time with the blogosphere, at the same level as the "A-list" bloggers. Same legal restrictions, everything. And one other, very important thing. It's not enough that they open up comments, they need to do trackbacks to. Nothing can get a debate going on between bloggers like trackbacks. They're a good way to make sure that the other side doesn't have an excuse to make wild assertions and then say, "well no one challenged me."
Of course they'd shit a brick if people started providing factual trackbacks, especially ones that reference opensecrets.org on pet projects. Imagine a democratic senator getting called out on their support for repressive copyright law or a republican getting forced to own up to links to pharmaceuticals when they oppose drug liberalization measures.
You know what? The original poster had a good point - it *is* important how you present yourself. As long as you keep it in sync with what you purport to represent, nothing wrong with that.
You know another thing? I'm sick and tired of people resorting to foul language at any and every opportunity. The grandparent was a civilized post - you're presenting the image of somebody foaming at the mouth. And that's *exactly* the image that no politican - left or right - wants to associate with.
Well, I am foaming at the mouth. Go ahead, attack me for being angry and using language that upsets your delicate sensitivities, but I'm sick and fucking tired of idiots like the original poster attempting to paint all democratic politicians with the fringe brush because they choose to address large and diverse communities that, at the very edges, have some people who spout unpopular ideas. (And I'm tired of my side doing the same thing to republicans, too.) It's weak and intellectually dishonest, and I don't care how great it sounds in a 30 second commercial.
DailyKos has tens of thousands of registered members who come together to engage with each other and talk about political issues. Hundreds of thousands of words are posted every day on the site dealing with an incredibly diverse range of topics. The readership at DailyKos is higher than most print newspapers in this country. Are a couple people who post there fans of Dennis Kuccinich, sure? Socialists? Probably. Outspoken about beliefs that would get them laughed out of almost town in the country? You betcha.
But the overwhelming majority of people who frequent DailyKos are people who care about the future of this country, and I'll stand up and use my voice, profane and foaming as it may be, to say FUCK YOU to the likes of you and anyone else who dares try to lessen the impact the power they hold by playing intellectually dishonest advertising games like the original poster suggests. Get used to it, because there are many more than me who are fed up with politics as usual in this country.
They caught that last part, believe me.
Heck, even beyond the money, politicos used "the blogosphere" with some success to spin their issues in the '04 election cycle, mere months after Dean's Iowa flameout. The newest wave of "Swift Boat Veteran" groups will try to drive all sorts of political wedges into the voting public via blogs.
Politicians aren't interested in its for its own sake, necessarily, but the uses aren't lost on them.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.