Thursday, September 27, 2007
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Activism vs. Punditry
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Posted by:
Dean Barnett at
4:35 PM
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Really, I don’t like being the turd in the punchbowl. And I really don’t like having Rob Bluey, Erick Erickson and our own Patrick Ruffini throwing darts at my likeness. But the issue of on-line enthusiasm in general doesn’t get my pulse racing. At the risk of really outraging some people, I’ll even go one better – virtual fundraising remains a freak-side show compared to its real world equivalent.
It’s not like online fundraising is always insignificant. In special elections like the one Colonel Jim Ogonowski will hopefully win in Massachusetts on October 16, the funds that online enthusiasts are generating will be vital. But at the presidential level, it’s a different story.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s really nice that Justin at MyManMitt.com has raised over $70,000 for our mutually preferred candidate. But considering that Mitt will spend about $80 million in the primary season, we’re not talking about a relatively huge amount of money here.
You may ask, what about online fundraising being a stand-in for online enthusiasm? Surely I’m not saying that online enthusiasm doesn’t matter? I am, and stop calling me Shirley. If online enthusiasm meant a whole lot, we’d be wrapping up the first term of the Dean administration, assuming President Dean hadn’t surrendered to the Islamists and we weren’t part of the Caliphate by now. Are things much different in the 2008 cycle? Ask the Ron Paul supporters. Scratch that – for your own safety, never initiate a conversation with a Ron Paul supporter. Suffice to say that Ron Paul has generated much more enthusiasm (and money) online than any of the sane Republican candidates, and he still is battling Pasadena Phil for 9th place in the GOP power rankings.
I KNOW RIGHT WING VIRTUAL ACTIVISTS want to be kingmakers like Kos, but to do that they ought to understand Markos’ most important lesson. He has often said that his most valuable asset is the soapbox that his prominence affords him. In other words, it’s not about activism, it’s about punditry.
I know that’s counter-intuitive, but work with me here. Republican candidates don’t care about what we do in the conservative blogosphere; they care about what we say. They respect our message machine because of what that message machine may say, not simply because it’s there. All of the Republican campaigns have blog-wranglers who try to give us talking points that will help their campaigns. Why? Because if we say something smart enough, original enough and insightful enough here in the virtual media, it will impact the national debate. Just ask Dan Rather and Mary Mapes.
But just because we say something doesn’t mean it’s necessarily noteworthy. One of the Netroots’ most charming attributes is their risible self-importance. Conservative bloggers aren’t the only ones who greet liberal bloggers’ “important action alerts” with gales of laughter. Congressional staffers do, too. Democratic congressional staffers.
Like everyone else in the media who relies on the written word, bloggers are only as potent as their ideas. That’s one of the reasons why Democrats are no longer shying away from giving the Nutroots the shaft when the urge strikes. Because most members of the Nutroots have no ideas, they are toothless tigers.
Let’s not forget – it was a conservative pundit who drafted the surge plan that is making such a difference in Iraq, and a conservative magazine that gave him the platform to present that plan. That is influencing the debate. It’s important to note that the surge plan didn’t profoundly transform the national debate because a media member, neither in the virtual or dead tree division, issued an important “action alert.”
Ideas matter. Online activism and action alerts? Not so much.
Compliments? Complaints? Contact me at Soxblog@aol.com.
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The nutroots do have power and have been able to drag the Dems to the left partly because of their issues and partly due to their ability to fund primary candidates. The Right roots have talk radio and are just starting to develop online power. It will take all of this election cycle and maybe the next 4 years but we will catch and surpass the nutroots.
Ideas and money raising are more powerful than just ideas alone.
I expect the Right Roots to take the next step once a nominee is named. We will catch up much faster then. |
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Does Dean really feel like a "man" when he continues to ridicule and belittle Paul supporters?
Come on, Dean - get out of the sandbox and quit making a jerk out of yourself. I am not a rabid Paul supporter, though very sympathetic to his voting record on fiscal and pro-life matters.
Your making these puerile comments benefits no one - especially yourself.
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what else are we to do if we care? I've convinced a number of people to vote for Romney, but our state is a Super Tuesday state, not an early state. I've sent Mitt what I can afford, and I have the bumper sticker on my car, but when you get right down to it, there are limited ways to make a difference for your candidate. Online activism reaches a limited audience, but it's wider than you can reach by other methods, and it's by far the best source of information available. So, blog on! p.s., I appreciate this site and visit it as often as time allows. |
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Dean says, "Ideas matter. Online activism and action alerts? Not so much."
I agree and disagree. Our ideas don't matter, when it comes to weather or not people will support one candidate or another.
What we say... about how great they are, doesn't matter.
The only way people are going to support our guy, is if they like what he says. The only way people are going to like what he says, is if they can find what he says. The only way people will find what he says, is if we organize it and present it in an organized maner...
That is why I created:
http://myclob.pbwiki.com/
If you want to know about Mitt Romney and police, just go to:
http://myclob.pbwiki.com/Police
If you want to know about Mitt Romney and sex, were do you go? Here, of course:
http://myclob.pbwiki.com/sex
So I disagree with Dean. People don't want ideas from no-name nobodies like me. Ideas are like elbows. Everyone has them. I don't agree with Patrick. Activism is for Ron Paul supporters. What people want, or should want, is first hand information from the candidates.
My activism is trying to build Romney a better page than he is.
I think every time you see the word "Iran" on Romne's page, it should link to his press releases and videos about his Iran policy... He' not doing that on his page, and so I'm trying to do it on mine...
How else are you going to know who to vote for without information?
But don't listen to me. I want to know some hard facts, and information before I vote...
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"Let’s not forget – it was a conservative pundit who drafted the surge plan that is making such a difference in Iraq, and a conservative magazine that gave him the platform to present that plan. That is influencing the debate. It’s important to note that the surge plan didn’t profoundly transform the national debate because a media member, neither in the virtual or dead tree division, issued an important 'action alert.'”
Funny, I saw similar "surge" proposals coming in before the Iraq War even started, first from various generals and military officers who criticized the lite occupation, then Tom Friedman, then Andrew Sullivan, then conservative pundits. I was reading stories years ago how we would liberate a village in Anbar, only to turn it over to al Qaeda (where they would slaughter anyone who cooperated with us), then we would go and take it back again--repeating the cycle. That we needed to hold territory to win this war. It only took the Bush Administration three an a half years to catch on and kick Rummy to the curb. I appreciate Fred Kagan helped get the Administration change course, but he was not exactly Newton getting struck on the head with a completely original thought.
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I deal with dinosaurs like this guy every day, who think the old system is far superior to the new one that's exploding before his tired, aging eyes. Watch the parallels between the music biz and politics; the RNC is Universal, stomping around, whining, screaming, confused and feable, while the younger, more streamlined, grassroots operations are THRIVING because we know how to survive in the new environment, and we've got the energy jerks like this writer used to have for the Constitution, freedom, and personal responsibility, something the neo-morons gave up on loooooong ago.
It might take a decade Dean, maybe two, but we'll crush your way of doing things, we'll still be here on the scene when you're in the nursing home. the immigration upheaval was only the first example of what we can do. |
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Seems like your not long for TH. It looks like Mr. Ruffini is kicking a little butt around here. |
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I can't and won't read an entry which uses language like that of your first sentence. Call me oversensitive, but coarseness does not equal effectiveness in some circles. |
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I had a vision from Carnac the Magnificent the other day, and he told me that Ron Paul would not win. A better source couldn't be found. |
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Hey MyMan,
Can you explain Thompson's failure to me?
dirL |
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Dean: I'm not sure I understand the distinction. I'm someone who never bothers himself with the left-wing side of the web, so maybe I'm missing something. I get it that you're saying they have activism without ideas, but I'm not sure how that relates to the right. It seems to me that on the right the punditry and the activism are intertwined (e.g. immigration bill, Miers), but that the component of that that I would call activism is pretty effective. Maybe that's the point you're trying to make... But I'm wondering where in your thinking the dividing line is between activism and punditry. Doesn't activism, where it exists, always result from what you're calling punditry? I think of it as cause and effect, and that the venue (online vs other) is mostly incidental. |
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this is like the youtube debate. this is like a dozen other things.
righties are overly risk averse. they reject opportunities where if they win, they win bodies on their team and if they lose, they don't lose bodies, just the effort that went into pursuing new bodies.
they talk themselves out of it. they say, "i can't visualize an end-point in this where we're not th unambiguous controller of the feild," and so they cop out.
so, wherever something new and influential is happening, you look around and conservatives aren't there. |
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Huge props to Ron Paul. He has a great message and it is reaping him millions of online dollars from new Republican donors and others who are tired of business as usual in this country. I know the GOP hacks who run the top teir campaigns realize how much it costs to get an online donation....it's practically free from direct mail and other costs ergo it's money with hardly any cost to obtain it. The so called top tier GOP candidates wish they could hold a candle to Ron Paul's grassroots support right now. |
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there is too much of this sort of pre-emptive dismissal.
its a new thing. does it really require your review, favorable or not? why not just let the new thing be the new thing. let the people who are attracted to using the platform use it and you can be grateful of whatever marginal contribution it imparts and avoid the impulse to expend your status on writing blogs about its marginality.
really, let's draw the analogy out to the fund raising itself. are we to expect a nine paragraph rant from you disregarding the worth of contributions under $500?
i do think that whatever way you can get people to be enthusiasticly involved, even if that level of involvement is only the re-amplification of talking points (which btw is what is most successful on the left), is worth nurturing.
i'm sorry. this was a stupid and pointless post. |
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... I think we are one election too early to be putting all of our eggs in the online activist basket. (This, I think, is part of the Thompson failure). But I think the future bodes well for online activism and as Patrick R. points out its all about the killer app: email.
I know that 70K doesn't seem like a lot of money... but when you raising it by $ 10 / 25 / 100 increments... it's something.
Also, I should note that there are only about 70 people in the entire country who have raised 70K+ for the Romney campaign.
- Justin @ MMM
Update (we're now $2000 shy of $75,000)
http://www.mymanmitt.com/ |
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We haven't vanished, we're just busy today. We are online at http://www.ronpaul2008.com, donating money to Dr. Paul, just past $526 K in 3 days 18 hours, now shooting for a $1 Million push by end of this week.
Not bad for a small group of Internet savvy geeks.
By the way, I'm getting out from behind my computer tomorrow to go and make some new friends at the GOP Party Monthy breakfast meeting in my county. I'm also taking my family to the annual county GOP picnic on Saturday. Question - What happens when 50,000 online Ron Paul meetup group members decide to get active in local GOP party politics?
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Yesterday, Powerline's John Hinderaker brought up a survey that showed less than 3% of adults over 18 think Congress is doing a good job. That is less than the margin of error, also known as the Ron Paul sound barrier). Kind of feathers right into the point I keep pounding out about party registrations continuing to plummet. People are tuning out in a big way as the parties insist on playing to the special interest money as if voters aren't noticing.
On the other hand, online activism, thanks to action alerts, once again defeated an attempt by Congress to sneak amnesty past us today. It does work when focused on an important issue with time running out.
Finally, I am in 9th place all by myself these days. The paulbots seem to have vanished in thin air. |
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