The Power of Political Blogging

The problem for the powers that be when looking at the political bloggers is that bloggers still have ideals. It has been so long since the pundit class sold their souls that they have forgotten what it was like to care.

Liberal bloggers aren’t truly angry, they are indignant. They know how things are supposed to be done, and are outraged when people, including the pundits, ignore the rules. It’s not that the Republicans break the rules, laws, and norms of a civil society; it’s that they do it with impunity.

It is especially galling when the media creates “new history” and claims that the atrocity of the moment is the way “things have always been done.” When it gets so blatant that they are forced to acknowledge a problem, they act like it just popped up, and hasn’t been part of a deliberate campaign that has been ongoing for decades.

Away from Photoshop Jane Hamsher seems to be a dedicated person doing everything she can for a purpose, but even with Christy, Fire Dog Lake isn’t the Internet version of Tammany Hall, a political machine capable of defeating Joe Lieberman. Lieberman is defeating himself by forgetting that his primary purpose is to represent the state of Connecticut in the Senate.

When the Pensacola Beach Blogger ripped into Jeff Miller for his actions that ran counter to the best interests of the Gulf Coast, Miller didn’t resign.

Even after The Grumpy Forester rightfully and righteously berated Conrad Burns for being a world class jerk for bad-mouthing dog-tired firefighters in an airport, Burns didn’t drop out of his campaign for the Senate in Montana.

Bloggers can’t save Cruella de Harris from her melt down, nor can they defeat incumbents who have provided their constituents with good service. What they can do is point out who people really are, and what they have done. Blogs can inform, and the best can motivate people to donate time and/or money to good candidates.

The biggest problem for new candidates is name recognition, and that is an area that can be addressed by bloggers. A candidate whose name makes it to an A-list blog stands a chance of being noticed by the media in a format other than a press release.

The other area in which blogs can benefit a candidate is small, hard money, donations to his/her campaign fund.

The truth is that nothing can replace local people, working locally. If you can’t convince local people to work and vote for you, you have no chance. Neighbors talking to neighbors is much more effective than media buys, especially since the advent of TiVo.

Bloggers are pamphleteers. They have a web site instead of a printing press, but they are identical in purpose to the 18^th century rabble-rousers of the American colonies. The pundits would know this if they bothered with history.