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Crashing the Book Signing
Last night, my husband and I ventured out to see authors, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga of DailyKos and Jerome Armstrong of My DD) read and discuss their book, "Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots & the Rise of People-Powered Politics". We hoped to garner a few good grassroots ideas from the interaction of the authors and those assembled. Cars circled for parking, as we did, identifiable by bumper stickers (Dean, Air America, etc.). The sponsors were SEIU and Drinking Liberally, and the event was held in that church of labor, the Seattle Labor Temple. There is also a bar in the building, so the surprisingly sober talk was punctuated by noises of revelry from below. There was also a nice spread of free food, impressive for a progressive event.
I had learned that DailyKos gets more than a million visitors per day, that traffic has grown by 5-10% per week, that it is about to dwarf the weekday circulation of the New York Times. Combined with the 70 busiest progressive blogs, more people can now be reached than by the DNC per thestranger.com. The time may be passing when mainstream elements of the party could ignore the blogosphere in favor of highly-paid consultants. Blogs have certainly not faded from the scene, following the 2004 election. Bloggers pushed for Dean to be head of the DNC and now many want to transform the party. These authors certainly fall into that group and advocate for a "vast leftwing conspiracy" to rival the powerful conservative network of think tanks and big donors.
To us, the most interesting aspect of the talk was the Q & A session with local residents. A summary follows. Each Q represents a citizen activist, each A one or both of the authors (paraphrased from notes). The audience was made up of a broad spectrum within the progressive/liberal community, moreso than we expected. This Q/A series represents ordinary citizens and questions you or I might have and relates to political activities we already participate in and how we could expand on them.
Q Why don't we say what we're for rather than what we're against, as a message?
A We had ceded too much of the country to the conservatives. Many run unopposed. Those not in a Democrat or swing state may never hear that we won't take away their guns. Democrats have to show how they are different from Republicans. Conservatives run the big media. We need to be able to counter the propaganda. We have made a start and there may soon be a television alternative, as Air America has been for radio.
Q How do we move Democrat Senators off the dime? What affect will limitations on 527s have?
A Conservatives don't believe in Campaign Finance Reform. 527s would now have similar status to PACs and people could not donate as much s they want. If Democrats have to rely more on small donors, that will get regular people involved again, as has already started to happen. Politicians will respond to the donors. We need to support a new generation of politicians and own them. I am suggesting buying out the politicians. They do not all have to hold the same positions. Ben Nelson represents Nebraska and only votes with the party half the time, but he can be depended on to support Harry Reid. He does not trash the party as, for example, Lieberman does. We need to get enough on our side in Congress to get Subpoena Power.
Q There is too much chatter on the blogs. How do we focus?
A Chatter is ok - it's for educating and motivating and getting more involved. Why no unified message? The Republicans have used "strong defense and family values" since it was successful in getting them in during the 1970s. Democrats still have alot of work to do at the state level, getting up to speed, to have a unified party. That's a long process. Republicans are battling for the "Millennial Generation," those under 28, the next Baby Boom. Rupert Murdoch has bought up "MySpace" where they hang out, and the Republicans can mine the blogs there and market to them. Meanwhile, Democrats are worrying whether to join Feingold's censure. Long-term thinking and structural changes are both needed and then we can win. Even if we regain a majority we will have long-term problems to solve.
Q How can we bring reform without criticism that we are fragmenting the Democratic party?
A We know the party has the right values. The fifty-state strategy was laughed at not long ago, and we were called "political naives." We are finding the opposite perception as we travel the US and the sense that we have nothing left to lose. Democrats are doing well in places like Montana and Colorado. We need to translate this nationally.
A Rove has been successful at mobilizing the right. It's not Bush's incompetence so much as his wrong ideology. We need to build our "brand." There are more Independents than anything else, and they could vote Democratic. The Republicans "framed" well. We chase the center but we need to become something that the center will come to.
Q The grassroots - who will do it? How? Where? When? Could there be a software system - a Google or eBay of organizing campaigns? The Dean phenomenon happened outside the party with MeetUp. Soros gave 40 million to ACT. Why not a sophisticated computer system? (The guy then reveals that he was a former Microsoft wealthy person but not now.)
A People can build it. It's a Brave New World. We just spoke at Microsoft earlier and told people to build the prototype. The money is out there, but don't look to the party. We plan a Leadership Institute next year that can train hundreds of activists.
Q Do we need to ignore our pet issues to gain a majority (eg. gay rights, civil rights etc)
A Conservatives don't talk about issues, but about values. We need to talk about what we all believe in, all over the country -- fairness, investing in our future, like conservatives talk about security and morality. A good example was Hackett, from a conservative district, who was able to approach the gay rights issues with something like "More power to 'em and if you disagree, it's unAmerican." We need to go for Core American Values. Conservatives talk in Code. Gingrich could tell Ralph Reed that the Christian Coalition could have their way once the Republicans were in office, without saying it directly.
Q We're in the Labor Temple, sponsored by a Union. What is the role of labor? Can we also take groups disenfranchised by both parties, according to some, like the disabled, and bring them personally into the party?
A The AFL-CIO split may have been healthy. The unions that left felt the labor pool was shrinking and that handing direct cash to candidates was outmoded. SEIU and others realized that it made more sense to try to increase the member base, get more members - not just dump money into a smaller union base. Halls like this are the Churches of the liberal movement. We need to build a Labor movement, not by blogging but by building unions which provide education to their members. We need to build up from the grassroots, not continue with top-down. The internet then allows disparate individuals to connect. Just talking about a fifty-state strategy has helped it grow.
Q What will the Democratic party look like in ten years?
A Dean is now the DNC chair, blogs have helped. People need to increase involvement at their local level and build them up.
Q Do you believe the election was stolen? (When asked how many in the audience do, approximately two-thirds of the hands go up)
A There were many problems in Ohio besides electronic machines. They were not just theoretical. If you read the Conyers report you know there was voter disenfranchisement.
Q Do you know there is an actual lawsuit in the next county because in our close Gubernatorial election, machine count favored the Republican, paper count which was also kept favored the Democrat?
A Yes, the machines are a piece of shit. Disenfranchising and machines should not be able to steal an election again. Let's also correct our structural problems in the party.
Q In our own county, we had addresses contested - the right to vote, to get the vote counted. Also, what are your thoughts on the media? Why are they so .. bad? What's happened? Thank goodness for the blogosphere. People in pajamas researching amazing stuff. Is there hope? What should we do?
A Republicans are trying to destroy the press because facts do not support the conservative ideology. On the left, we say "do your job." We need evidence. Conservatives are completely rigid on their ideology. Facts need to be reported. The Sunday talk shows are skewed conservative. We need to push them away from that. Look how we got rid of the Washington Post's rightwing nutso blogger? Bloggers can't do it all but we are an exciting supplement. We can't have people out getting scoops in wars and then rushing back to their blogs.
They signed books. I didn't get a book or stand in line, but photographed Kos and at that time thanked him for having Kerry and Carter as bloggers, and he said "better late than never." He also said that JK could possibly be a participant at the national Kos convention in Vegas. As a thanks, here's the book plug.
Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots & the Rise of People-Powered Politics
http://www.chelseagreen.com/2005/items/crashingthe gate
Thanks for the report, DiAnne. I had ordered one of the early release copies and already read and passed on my copy of the book. It's well done.
I found this review of the book to provide a fairly thorough view of the book as well as a very clear introduction to the blogosphere.
From The New York Review of Books:
The Hope of the Web
By Bill McKibben
When, less than a decade ago, the Internet emerged as a force in most of our lives, one of the questions people often asked was: Would it prove, like TV, to be a medium mainly for distraction and disengagement? Or would its two-way nature allow it to be a potent instrument for rebuilding connections among people and organizations, possibly even renewing a sense of community? The answer is still not clear— more people use the Web to look at unclothed young women and lose money at poker than for any other purposes. But if you were going to make a case for the Web having an invigorating political effect, you could do worse than point your browser to dailykos.com, which was launched in 2002 by Markos Moulitsas Zúniga.
The site, which draws more than half a million visits each day,[1] has emerged as a meeting place for a great many ordinary people (i.e., not only politicians, journalists, academic experts, issue advocates, or big donors) who want to revive the Democratic Party. Obsessed with developing strategies for defeating Republicans, the site was much involved with the campaign of Howard Dean for the presidential nomination and carrying on his forthright opposition to the Iraq war. Its sophisticated technological structure, assembled by Moulitsas, has allowed its viewers to raise money for favored politicians, rethink and debate issue positions, harass lazy or ideologically biased journalists and commentators, and even help break stories that the mainstream press managed to overlook. In doing so, it has explicitly tried to chart a new future for the Democrats—the subject of the book under review—and implicitly suggested new possibilities for the American political system that might help it break free of the grip of big money. It also raises large questions about the future of journalism. In my view, nothing more interesting has happened in American politics for many years.
read the rest here...
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18910
Dwahzon
That was a very nice, comprehensive review. Thanks for posting it. What I am impressed with is a) the practicality/emphasis on winning, b) the awareness of need for long-term strategic planning, c) emphasis on basic over-riding message, d) that as many people hung in there after losing important fights.
During general elections, I've had good experiences with campaign people and with grassroots, but have always felt there was some sort of disconnect - the systems didn't mesh as smoothly and efficiently as they could. Now is the time to build this, especially when there is a mid-term election coming up, the dominant party has been organized and on-message, and now there is some floundering among the opposition, barely a year past the Inauguration.
(these examples just today, thx to MBK)
Run-Down Republicans By E. J. Dionne Jr.
The Republicans must come up with a new approach to governing that solves problems instead of arguing over them or evading them completely. To view the entire article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/06/AR2006040601375.html?referrer=emailarticle
GOP Sees Disturbing Reflection in The Mirror ">http://letters.washingtonpost.com/W3RH033EB41E8C018FF7F3280158D0>
The Tom DeLay era is ending much as it began. An entrenched majority, battered by ethical scandals involving its top leaders, is running what many see as a politically polarized and profligate House of Representatives.
A 'Concerted Effort' to Discredit Bush Critic http://letters.washingtonpost.com/W3RH033EB47EBC018FF7F3280158D0
Prosecutor Describes Cheney, Libby as Key Voices Pitching Iraq-Niger Story
Analysis: President May Be Running Out of Time to Rebound http://letters.washingtonpost.com/W3RH033EB48EAC018FF7F3280158D0
Also, John Kerry is on "Meet the Press" today.
I don't know anything about this book, but the talk sounds interesting...
On CSPAN 2 at 1 pm Eastern
Blurb:
Speech
Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election
Mark Crispin Miller talked about his book Fooled Again: How the Right Stole the 2004 Election and Why They'll Steal the Next One Too (Unless We Stop Them), published by Basic Books. Professor Miller argued that the outcome of the 2004 election, in many states including Ohio, was manipulated to favor George Bush and the Republican party. He discussed the evidence he has for this charge and talked about the reaction that Sen. John Kerry had when presented with the evidence. Professor Miller also argued that the Republican Party has been taken over by religious fundamentalists who see their opponents as evil and whose ultimate goal is to bring about Armageddon.
This was the keynote presentation of "Communication in Crisis," an interdisciplinary conference on communication and culture at the University of Massachusetts - Amherst.
Miller, Mark Crispin Professor, New York University, Culture and Communication
DiAnne,
Thanks for the reporting. The diarists at DailyKos are evolving. When I first visited it over a year ago I was struck by the intense anger and lack of ideas. Slowly but surely the majority of people at that site have come to realize that reckless accusations and bitter reproachments are not going to solve any problems. Providing a forum is a good thing, but it is not only having that forum that is necessary for change. It is using the conversation to effect meaningful change.
OnCall
Yeah, I have a couple of personal friends that have been nagging me about Kos. It depends on the topic & diary but it has come along. Kos himself is pragmatic & I like that. I went to the book review thing out of curiosity & he is a focussed man. It is bound to have an influence on the site, but it also depends on the overall quality of diarists it attracts. I now think it has alot of potential (along with the blogosphere) as input upward to the politicos but also in hurrying along reform of the system.
After the election, our grassroots volunteers (the ones who had worked hardest for Kerry - there are a couple of other big groups about same size, one more general, one more Dean-origin oriented & I follow those too) - anyway - we met and strategized. We decided to defocus some on message and candidates and work on our state structure - how volunteers are databased, a system for organizing & disseminating, & how to be able to hold some actual leverage against party leadership & candidates. They would need to work with us & use our system to get our support, since we were mostly volunteers. We had help from some techies too, & so far it's been moving along.
My read on Kos (Marcus himself) is that we need to do this in all the states and have a simple, unified message nationally then tailor it down for areas too, run candidates & they win. We also reform the voting system, the campaign finance system, get more of the public involved so increase the small donor base. Companies and corporations would also feel our importance more and not automatically go to the other, usually more-organized group. & get more people to unionize & keep that realm or education & volunteer energy going. Add to this finally the contributions of people like Lakof (framing) and Wallis (values of our own), & strong candidates with integrity but their message gets across.
Another thing I got from Kos reinforced things I'd read & realized over time - how much do we rely too much on paid consultants and where does our contribution money go? He advocates for more bottom-up-oriented politics, and also for a new generations of politicians. There is alot of potential in the use of programming and technology too. It's a "Brave New World" & it's amazing to think that the other group has a big head-start, but now is the time because they're faltering & have not been able to deliver either domestically or militarily.