When Lowell Feld asked me, I said I wasn’t going to blog his gig at Busboys and Poets. “Nah, I’m off duty and I’m not taking notes,” I told him and Nate Wilcox. But I changed my mind.
First of all, it’s worth noting that Adams Morgan is a great neighborhood. Jaybird’s Jottings called it “a hipster haven” and has a good write up of the entire event. Busboys and Poets also live blogged it on their site.
As for Adams Morgan, the narrow streets are always crowded with young, and not so young, people gliding in and out of shops and bistros. It has the type of energy you find in New York neighborhoods like Williamsburg and lower Manhattan.
Most NoVa bloggers would probably feel comfortable in Busboys and Poets simply because it’s computer friendly. When you walk in, there are several rows of long tables, set up almost like countertops, with people busy at their laptops, totally oblivious to the crowded nightlife around them. You know, our kind of people :).
Lowell and Nate were in a separate room with a small stage, two stools, and two mikes. It was an intimate “clubby” setting with lots of tables, some booths, etc. Think open mike night at Folk City. Only instead of breaking out the guitars and singing, they and the audience were there to discuss Lowell and Nate's new book, Netroots Rising. After the discussion, they held a book signing.
As others have pointed out, Nate Wilcox was excellent on the techie trends in sophisticated, modern political campaigns. Lowell connected with the audience and spoke about the human factor. He discussed the now well-known Webb-Allan campaign and the Maccacca affair. As he pointed out, that incident didn’t cause the meltdown so widely reported. It was really the slow accretion of stories and details about Allen that followed in the wake of the YouTube video that did in the campaign and candidate. That video merely opened the floodgate.
As Lowell explained, the actual video was serendipity. Nobody could have foreseen Allen’s gaffe in Breaks, VA. But many people had long suspected that Allen’s folksy, cowboy, Southern gentleman image was a façade. It was an open secret that under the genial veneer there was a dark side. Both those in the media and Richmond insiders knew about the Confederate flags, the potted tree with the noose hanging from it in his office, and his tendency to use the “N” word. Nobody would report it. But after Allen was caught on tape, “people came out of the woodwork,” as Lowell put it, with stories dating back to Allen’s college days. Old roommates and pals came forward with incidents they had witnessed. Then, there was Allen’s response to TV newscaster Peggy Fox’s question about his Jewish background, which generated sympathy at the live debate but played out badly in the press and on the blogs. However, as Lowell also mentioned, bloggers laid the groundwork for these revelations early in the campaign. So did the Webb campaign. And even the felicitous videotape would not have been possible had the campaign not had S.R. Siddarth out there tracking Allen.
After speaking briefly, Nate and Lowell opened it up as a general discussion, taking questions from the audience and introducing colleagues such as Annabel Park, who spoke about some of her experiences with the Webb campaign, especially her work with the Asian community.
The discussion part of the evening ended on a tentative note as the two authors discussed the future of the blogosphere. Absent a crystal ball, it’s difficult to predict where we go from here. But as they pointed out, newspapers and mainstream media are increasingly putting up their own blogs. Sites such as Huffington Post, while politically progressive, are basically corporate in structure and mainly have many very well known writers and journalists clamoring to write for them.
The place where the citizen activists and amateurs are still most strong is at the state and local level. Software like Soapblox has allowed people to start true community forums where anybody can post a diary. They’ve become the new public square where political activists can congregate.
Showing posts with label Netroots Rising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Netroots Rising. Show all posts
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Netroots Rising Is An Engaging History of a Citizen Army of Grassroots Activists
I just finished reading Netroots Rising. Lowell Feld sent me a copy of the book a couple of weeks ago and I promptly forgot to email him to thank him. My apologies to Lowell for my bad manners. But I knew I wasn’t going to read it right away and I didn’t want him to know how long I was going to procrastinate before getting to it. In my defense, I’ll add that it’s been a busy few weeks.
Since I was overcome by events, I confess I put off reading it because I kind of suspected that once I started, I wasn’t going to want to deal with interruptions. I was right. So I carved out a chunk of time when I wouldn’t be disrupted while I was reading. Glad I did.
I suppose you really could start the book and put it down. I’m also told there are people who can eat just one potato chip.
Netroots Rising reads almost like a novel. It has several narrative lines and it switches back and forth between the points of view of both authors, Nate Wilcox and Lowell Feld. It has a rising story line with twist and turns, obstacles, and complications. And the varying plotlines converge at the end.
The book opens with the state of the political sphere in 2002, where the advantage went to the Republicans. Most fundraising in both parties consisted of large donors writing checks for at least $1,000 or $2,000 a pop. But the GOP had the lock on donations from small donors thanks to their mastery of direct mail and earlier computer technology. They built better databases than the Democrats had and led the way with grassroots GOTV field efforts. Their ground game was beating the Democrats most every time.
In addition, the earliest, most successful websites and blogs were dominated by Republicans such as the Drudge Report, Free Republic and Instapundit.
Although the Republicans dominated the Net, as they had the airwaves on cable television and radio, they mostly took their talking points from Rush Limbaugh, Tom DeLay and Karl Rove and theirs was a top down operation.
Netroots Rising opens from Nate Wilcox’s point of view with the situation in Texas and recounts the struggle of the progressive grassroots and the new netroots activists in local races there. It covers the antics of Tom DeLay and his newly formed Texans for a Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC). It briefly describes Republican dirty tricks in other states, such as those that defeated Vietnam veteran and triple amputee Max Cleland in Georgia, and describes DeLay’s successful attempt to force an unprecedented and barely legal mid decade redistricting scheme in the Texas legislature. The tome describes in fascinating detail the various attempts to unseat DeLay and the role of a growing grassroots activist core, which did an admirable job of challenging him.
The book then segues into the mounting frustration of Lowell Feld, who watched, with increasing dismay as the 2000 election unfolded, followed by 9/11, the invasion of Iraq, and the Democrats’ totally ineffective 2004 election campaign, when John Kerry was Swiftboated into defeat while a core of paid professional consultants and party insiders appeared helpless to counter an aggressive Republican spin machine.
Lowell had earlier enlisted in the Draft Wesley Clark movement, attended meet ups, and gradually got involved in both netroots and grassroots activism. Meanwhile, Wilcox joined Howard Dean's campaign, one of the earliest to utilize the Internet effectively.
The book goes back and forth between Wilcox in Texas and Feld in Virginia. Of course, it ends with the triumph of Jim Webb’s election, truly one of the glowing success stories of the progressive Netroots in 2006. It gives the behind the scenes account of the famous maccacca incident that led to George Allen’s defeat by Webb.
The conflict between the grassroots and netroots activists versus the party insiders and professional staff is a constant theme running through the book. The tome also details the difference in campaign philosophy between the somewhat chaotic and exuberant bottom up style of the activists versus the top down, button down professional discipline of the professionals and insiders. A traditionalist would think that the top down model should be the more successful one because of its discipline and focus. But that wasn’t borne out by the results. Democrats kept losing elections under the helm of the party professionals like Bob Shrum and Tad Devine. So, grassroots activists, especially those newly enlisted from the netroots, felt justified in questioning the old top down model.
The book does not end on a triumphant note, however, content to rest on the laurels of Webb’s and Jon Tester’s victories in the Senate. Instead, I sensed a growing frustration on the part of authors Feld and Wilcox at the fact that netroots activists are still not exactly greeted with open arms by party insiders. There is dissatisfaction that, despite all the hard work of netroots and grassroots activists, they haven’t been embraced as part of the Democratic Party’s mainstream but are still outsiders looking in. So, Netroots Rising ends with a question: What is the future of the Netroots?
I don’t think anybody can answer that question. But based on the history of other grassroots reform movements and of alternative press from the past, I’d venture a guess that some of the better blogs will eventually become part of the mainstream. Some bloggers will lose interest and move on to other activities. And newer technology will replace all of this. Things we can’t even imagine yet will supplant the netroots and blogs with still greater innovation. But one thing will never change and that is the human desire to communicate with others and the yearning to use whatever technology is available to organize our fellow citizens and to improve our lives. In that, the netroots isn’t something brand new but is the newest addition to an honorable tradition. All of the reformers, those who published broadsides and pamphlets and underground newspapers and mimeographed fliers are all part of our rich legacy. And we will someday watch other exuberant newcomers grab onto the newest technology to go even farther than us.
Since I was overcome by events, I confess I put off reading it because I kind of suspected that once I started, I wasn’t going to want to deal with interruptions. I was right. So I carved out a chunk of time when I wouldn’t be disrupted while I was reading. Glad I did.
I suppose you really could start the book and put it down. I’m also told there are people who can eat just one potato chip.
Netroots Rising reads almost like a novel. It has several narrative lines and it switches back and forth between the points of view of both authors, Nate Wilcox and Lowell Feld. It has a rising story line with twist and turns, obstacles, and complications. And the varying plotlines converge at the end.
The book opens with the state of the political sphere in 2002, where the advantage went to the Republicans. Most fundraising in both parties consisted of large donors writing checks for at least $1,000 or $2,000 a pop. But the GOP had the lock on donations from small donors thanks to their mastery of direct mail and earlier computer technology. They built better databases than the Democrats had and led the way with grassroots GOTV field efforts. Their ground game was beating the Democrats most every time.
In addition, the earliest, most successful websites and blogs were dominated by Republicans such as the Drudge Report, Free Republic and Instapundit.
Although the Republicans dominated the Net, as they had the airwaves on cable television and radio, they mostly took their talking points from Rush Limbaugh, Tom DeLay and Karl Rove and theirs was a top down operation.
Netroots Rising opens from Nate Wilcox’s point of view with the situation in Texas and recounts the struggle of the progressive grassroots and the new netroots activists in local races there. It covers the antics of Tom DeLay and his newly formed Texans for a Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC). It briefly describes Republican dirty tricks in other states, such as those that defeated Vietnam veteran and triple amputee Max Cleland in Georgia, and describes DeLay’s successful attempt to force an unprecedented and barely legal mid decade redistricting scheme in the Texas legislature. The tome describes in fascinating detail the various attempts to unseat DeLay and the role of a growing grassroots activist core, which did an admirable job of challenging him.
The book then segues into the mounting frustration of Lowell Feld, who watched, with increasing dismay as the 2000 election unfolded, followed by 9/11, the invasion of Iraq, and the Democrats’ totally ineffective 2004 election campaign, when John Kerry was Swiftboated into defeat while a core of paid professional consultants and party insiders appeared helpless to counter an aggressive Republican spin machine.
Lowell had earlier enlisted in the Draft Wesley Clark movement, attended meet ups, and gradually got involved in both netroots and grassroots activism. Meanwhile, Wilcox joined Howard Dean's campaign, one of the earliest to utilize the Internet effectively.
The book goes back and forth between Wilcox in Texas and Feld in Virginia. Of course, it ends with the triumph of Jim Webb’s election, truly one of the glowing success stories of the progressive Netroots in 2006. It gives the behind the scenes account of the famous maccacca incident that led to George Allen’s defeat by Webb.
The conflict between the grassroots and netroots activists versus the party insiders and professional staff is a constant theme running through the book. The tome also details the difference in campaign philosophy between the somewhat chaotic and exuberant bottom up style of the activists versus the top down, button down professional discipline of the professionals and insiders. A traditionalist would think that the top down model should be the more successful one because of its discipline and focus. But that wasn’t borne out by the results. Democrats kept losing elections under the helm of the party professionals like Bob Shrum and Tad Devine. So, grassroots activists, especially those newly enlisted from the netroots, felt justified in questioning the old top down model.
The book does not end on a triumphant note, however, content to rest on the laurels of Webb’s and Jon Tester’s victories in the Senate. Instead, I sensed a growing frustration on the part of authors Feld and Wilcox at the fact that netroots activists are still not exactly greeted with open arms by party insiders. There is dissatisfaction that, despite all the hard work of netroots and grassroots activists, they haven’t been embraced as part of the Democratic Party’s mainstream but are still outsiders looking in. So, Netroots Rising ends with a question: What is the future of the Netroots?
I don’t think anybody can answer that question. But based on the history of other grassroots reform movements and of alternative press from the past, I’d venture a guess that some of the better blogs will eventually become part of the mainstream. Some bloggers will lose interest and move on to other activities. And newer technology will replace all of this. Things we can’t even imagine yet will supplant the netroots and blogs with still greater innovation. But one thing will never change and that is the human desire to communicate with others and the yearning to use whatever technology is available to organize our fellow citizens and to improve our lives. In that, the netroots isn’t something brand new but is the newest addition to an honorable tradition. All of the reformers, those who published broadsides and pamphlets and underground newspapers and mimeographed fliers are all part of our rich legacy. And we will someday watch other exuberant newcomers grab onto the newest technology to go even farther than us.
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