Much has been written about post-broadcast politics, networked politics, or any other number of phrases about the political process moving beyond the thirty second soundbite on the evening news. Obama’s use of the Internet has been compared to JFK’s use of television. JFK understood the new medium of television and used it to his advantage, [...]
0 comments Aldon Hynes | Democratic National Convention, Empowerment, Technology
Perhaps the most important part of the Democratic National Convention blogging is yet to begin; trying to figure out what happened … We are already starting to see various attempts to make sense of it all… Charlie Cooper … New York Times … Cam Barrett … “How exactly are political blogs “two-way communication”?” … True success for me would be if I could just get a few more people actively involved in participatory democracy.
When it was first reported that bloggers would be receiving press credentials to cover the Democratic National Convention, amidst all the articles talking about how bloggers arent real journalists, there were two self fulfilling predictions made. One was that bloggers would go off the reservation and be smacked down for it, and the other was that the bloggers, and perhaps the convention as a whole would be disappointing.
Needless to say, the press are now reporting that both events have happened. In terms of the disappointment, I have had my own set of disappointments. First, for some undetermined reason, Greater Democracy didnt get picked up by the cool convention aggregators, so our traffic only increased three-fold instead of five-fold. More importantly, no publisher has asked me to write a book and I havent landed a contract to write on a regular basis for New Yorker and/or The Atlantic Monthly. However, not having ones wildest dreams attained during a chaotic couple of days in Boston probably doesnt really count as a disappointment.
Last night I was so impressed with Kerry’s speech that, while watching it, I added a couple of his best lines to the site: Help is on the way. and The future doesn’t belong to fear, it belongs to freedom! Which freedom is this? In another item earlier this week, I mentioned that freedom has different meanings for different people. To me and Bobbie McGee, it’s just another word for nothing left to lose. To someone like George W. Bush, freedom means laissez-faire, freedom from government “interference” in business… where the role of government is limited to protection (and extension) of property rights… the property rights of some, anyway.
If you want a fitting homage to Gov. Dean, don’t look for blue signs at a convention, get down to your local Democratic Party Headquarters and get involved.
DailyKos is writing about Credential Swapping, a way of getting more people into the convention hall. Apparently, it is gotten so bad that they have locked the hall. It is interesting to think about credentials. Credentials are all about something being credible, being trustworthy.
It has been interesting listening to Vanessa and Alexandra Kerry talk about their father. There have been references to love of country and integrity. These are values that all Americans hold, right? I mean, are you going to tell me that George W. Bush does love this country and doesn’t have integrity? (Uh, forget that [...]
On June 25th, Nancy Pelosi came and campaigned for Diane Farrell, who is running for congress in the 4th Congressional District of Connecticut. I paused to pose for pictures with my wife who is running for State Rep, for the first time in her life.
Pelosi was gracious and wonderful. She was very supportive of young new Democrats running for office. Ive been harping on the importance of the Send Me message, of people working selflessly for the good of the country. Pelosis support of new candidates is another great example of candidates working selflessly, which seems so rare in politics these days. Weve also talked a lot about leadership on this blog. Pelosi showed herself to be a great leader at the fundraiser for Diane Farrell.
Yesterday, I was part of a panel on the role of blogs in campaigns. It was at three oclock, so I couldnt make it to two other events that I really wanted to attend. One was the Meetup Meetup. If anyone was there that reads this, please post a comment about how it went.
The other event was organized by The Backbone Campaign. This is an interesting group out of Washington State. One member is part of the Washington delegation. The other is out at the events outside of the convention hall. If youve seen the 60 foot puppet of a backbone, which I saw at Copley square yesterday, youve seen one of their projects.
Yesterday, they held a press conference in the Free Speech Zone, with many delegates speaking out against the caging of dissent in America. Ive walked through the Free Speech Zone a few times, and it has struck me that it is closer to the twilight zone. It is disappointing that better venues couldnt be found to encourage dissent in America.