Friday, September 10, 2004
It's the mud wrestling, Stupid.
Our friends at Centerfield are having a discussion today about how the Presidential election seems to have gone "off topic". One of the speculations was that perhaps bloggers had contributed to the campaign moving in that direction.
I have maintained that blogging is the modern day equivalent to the political pamphlets that were popular during the Colonial/Revolutionary era. Back then, individuals with access to a printing machine, ink and paper could print off their thoughts and distribute them to the masses. Blogging (especially political blogging) is essentially the same thing...with pixels.
The contribution of blogs whether for good or bad (certainly not for indifferent) are for the time being, going to shape the political landscape in the United States. As we've witnessed, bloggers are a force to be reckoned with whether you're Trent Lott or Dan Rather.
Blogging is grassroots politicking at it's most fundamental level. It's information exchange, soapboxing and debate club all mixed up together in a frenzy of computer generated soup. Some of us are blowhards. Some of us are thoughtful and sensitive. Some of us are hobby writers or political junkies. We're liberals and conservatives and centrists and nutjobs.
In the end though it seems to me that bloggers don't drive politics per se. Certainly bloggers aren't the ones who've pulled the campaigns off of the rails from discussing issues to slugging it out in the mud. That's been going on since the inception of American politics. What pulls campaigns off topic are the candidates themselves. Why? It works. Name calling, obfuscation, unfounded accusations...all of it works. It won't end until people stop rewarding it with votes.
Walter Mondale tried to tell the American people the truth during his campaign. He lost all but one state in the Electoral College. Michael Dukakis also tried to stay above the fray and stick to issues and he was rewarded with a kick to the curb. I'm sure I'll get comments now about how Mondale is a Communist and Dukakis is a girlie man tank driver...but really that just proves my point.
In the end, it's up to the voters. Many say they want to hear about the issues...but they always seem to put the person in office who talks the least about them.
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I have maintained that blogging is the modern day equivalent to the political pamphlets that were popular during the Colonial/Revolutionary era. Back then, individuals with access to a printing machine, ink and paper could print off their thoughts and distribute them to the masses. Blogging (especially political blogging) is essentially the same thing...with pixels.
The contribution of blogs whether for good or bad (certainly not for indifferent) are for the time being, going to shape the political landscape in the United States. As we've witnessed, bloggers are a force to be reckoned with whether you're Trent Lott or Dan Rather.
Blogging is grassroots politicking at it's most fundamental level. It's information exchange, soapboxing and debate club all mixed up together in a frenzy of computer generated soup. Some of us are blowhards. Some of us are thoughtful and sensitive. Some of us are hobby writers or political junkies. We're liberals and conservatives and centrists and nutjobs.
In the end though it seems to me that bloggers don't drive politics per se. Certainly bloggers aren't the ones who've pulled the campaigns off of the rails from discussing issues to slugging it out in the mud. That's been going on since the inception of American politics. What pulls campaigns off topic are the candidates themselves. Why? It works. Name calling, obfuscation, unfounded accusations...all of it works. It won't end until people stop rewarding it with votes.
Walter Mondale tried to tell the American people the truth during his campaign. He lost all but one state in the Electoral College. Michael Dukakis also tried to stay above the fray and stick to issues and he was rewarded with a kick to the curb. I'm sure I'll get comments now about how Mondale is a Communist and Dukakis is a girlie man tank driver...but really that just proves my point.
In the end, it's up to the voters. Many say they want to hear about the issues...but they always seem to put the person in office who talks the least about them.
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