1115.org

Just a day after I argued that the power of political blogs was limited by the actions of party leaders, and like clockwork, Kerry campaign online rapid response and blog outreach honcho Peter Daou posts an important piece about the dynamic at work between blogs, the media, and those in power. Daou makes some excellent points about how information flows and the uphill battle faced by bloggers when they attempt to exert their will. But it’s this part I want to talk about:

My challenge was to bring the energy, ideas, and attitude of the netroots into the heart of the campaign, and provide tools, information and support to the online community. I ran into two big obstacles, one of which was the tremendous amount of money being raised online. Not surprisingly, the Internet was perceived as a source of cash, not as a research or communications tool. I joined the campaign motivated by the prospect of hundreds of thousands of ready and able online activists working together to probe every angle of an issue, explore every line of an argument, act as a massive oppo research team and real-time focus group, carrying a unified and disciplined message online and offline. This was an untapped resource that hadn’t existed in previous presidential elections and I hoped the campaign would harness it, but the prodigious fundraising capabilities of the Internet sucked up all the online oxygen.

Of course we all knew this, but to hear Daou say it makes it real in a way that the words of a thousand bloggers could not. I don’t think anyone would begrudge the Kerry campaign wringing the maximum amount of contributions out of blogs and their email list. But the fact that they were so myopic that “internet” became a synonym for “cash” might be a good place to look for why Democrats have been unable to capitalize on what is essentially a failed Bush Presidency.

It’s tempting to look at a 50/50 election and a 51/48 election and come to the conclusion that it is wise to play it safe then fight like hell in October for the few points held in the squishy middle. So tempting in fact that it has become standard operating procedure even though it failed in 2000, 2002, and 2004. Democratic leaders have become so terrified of being attacked by Republicans and subsequently vilified by the media that they have completely ignored the facts on the ground, misjudged the political realities, and willfully dismissed almost all calls to fight. How many more losing election cycles will it take before it is deemed acceptable to do something, anything differently?

Now, it’s natural for the professionals in Washington to dismiss calls from outside the beltway; after all, I’ve seen some of the “less refined” discourse that can easily be found in certain corners of the internet, and it’s not pretty. But constantly being on the losing end should push these professionals to search out new ideas both on policy and tactics. Why is it that everyone knew what was happening with the Iraq war vote in 2002 except D.C. Dems? Why is it that everyone knew what was happening with the Swift Boat Liars but it still took the Kerry campaign an eternity to fight back? There is a disconnect between D.C. Dems and bloggers/activists because there is a disconnect in what we see coming out of Washington: Loss upon loss and not a single change in personnel including Bob “0-8″ Shrum, yet outside opinions remain unwelcome.

When I was a kid, Cohen Sr. would get Steeler tickets a few times each season, invariably between the 40s at field level. At halftime of every game we attended, we’d climb the ramps from level 100 to level 600, get some hot dogs and watch the rest of the game standing near the top of the stadium. It didn’t take long before I figured out that having close seats was nice, but you could see the game much better from the cheap seats. In the 100 seats, we were surrounded by doctors, lawyers, and other professionals who used the game like to talk shop, make deals, and be seen. Whether the Steelers won or lost was beside the point. Standing in the 600 ring we rubbed elbows with Steeler fans who knew about the game and lived for Sunday afternoons.

Despite their field-level seats, D.C. Dems have no perspective. They are too close to see what is really going on, and their financial stake / power lust further clouds their vision. Bloggers sitting in the cheap seats may lack the training and experience of their counterparts in Washington, but they are more than willing and able to add value in other ways. Daou was right to think of the internet as the ideal tool for distributed opposition research, focus grouping and messaging. But walking and chewing gum was obviously too much for Team Kerry to handle, as their only communication to the vast majority of their supporters was an email every other day regurgitating the prior day’s news coupled with pleas for more money.

It’s common to bash insiders with words like “insular,” “cocktail party set,” and others, but with each passing day it is becoming more, rather than less, apt. It’s not that outsiders are any more Democratic or any more authentic than those in D.C. who are running the show, but a large group of people is always going to be smarter than a small group of people. 10 years after Netscape there are ample ways to aggregate the collective intelligence of large groups of people. We’re 14 months from the mid-term elections, and no closer to finding a way to work together than we were during the failed Kerry campaign. Why aren’t we testing ideas in this year’s off-year elections in an attempt to build momentum in ‘06 and ‘08? Why are the same people with nothing but losses on their resumes walling off the most energetic and partisan supporters?

I’m not sure why D.C. Dems are scared of using these tools (cooties?), but it shouldn’t be fear of losing. They already have that down cold.