A time for every season under heaven
Times, they are a'changin......
Bloggers vs. the Old Way of Governing
Robert Bluey, the editor of HumanEvents.com and our old colleague from downstairs at Cybercast News, has an op-ed in the Washington Examiner today about the growing significance of bloggers on Capitol Hill. Just last week, Rob and others successfully pressured Sen. Harry Reid to strengthen earmark reform -- thanks to Internet pressure and the help of a couple seasoned bloggers who are now working in Senate offices:
The debate had captivated the blogosphere. As Roth noted at the Club for Growth, more than 1,700 blogs had been written about earmark reform over a 24-hour period.
Three of the most well-trafficked liberal blogs — Daily Kos, MyDD and TPMmuckraker — also turned on the Democrat leader. “Sen. Harry Reid is fast losing whatever credibility he had on earmark reform,” wrote a blogger at Daily Kos. “Who’s the arm-twister now?” asked Paul Kiel at TPMmuckraker.
By Friday afternoon, Reid had reversed course and DeMint was lauding him for agreeing to language that was “even stronger than what I had originally proposed.”
(H/T: NewsBusters)
Face it, three years ago, this scenario (the top guy in the Senate being rebuffed on a favorite issue) would NEVER have happened. Senator Reid must still be shaking his head - how could these "people sitting around their computers in their pajamas" have this effect? I spent this long to get this high, and a bunch of key pounders turn up like a humongous boulder (think Indiana Jones) flattening my version of earmark "reform"?
How times have changed....
Blogs are increasingly playing major roles in politics at all levels; just as in the past, new methods are supplanting the traditional ones. Who can remember lately hearing a true stump speech (on a real tree stump!), a whistle stop address, a lecturn hall speech, true oratory (no Doug, you don't count!) deliveries and debates (think Lincoln and Douglas). While the print media has stayed constant, radio, news reels, and then TV played an increasingly important role. While they continue to be important (with vast amounts of money poured into tightly crafted ads), the new frontier is the Internet.
Even a plain web site is passe. Lexis-Nexis, the Memory Hole, Google, Yahoo, and other Internet sites provide rich archives to see who said what and when (often to the embarrasment of the clueless pol trying to change his or her spots). Blogs debate the issues of the day, often in terms and words not generally seen in typical political environs as bloggers and commenters oftentimes throwing all civility to the wind....and that's not even for campaigns!
Now, the cutting edge of political debate may well be a podcast vs a YouTube video, linked to and being linked from multiple blogs. No longer is political time measured in months, weeks, or even days. A critical blog entry by a political operative may flash into existence in the morning rebutted by a orchestrated video spotlighting the actual target of the attack, deflecting the objections, with a podcast of allies on the side.
The phrase of "connected politics" now has a brand new meaning - those people seeking political office know that the new media is where the attention is at - smart, connected bloggers with a political bent are now in high demand to help run national campaigns and help shape the outbound and critical messages, helping the less savvy navigate the sometimes turbulent seas of the new media.
Bloggers everywhere are changing the tone, tenor, and focus of politics everywhere and at every level. People may not like it (certainly those that are not used to the rough and tumble ways of "everyone has a comment - or ten), but as long as free speech remains a basic tenent of our society, it is here to stay.
