Outside the Beltway

Bloggers as a Political Force

James Joyner · Saturday, January 14, 2006 · 3 comments

Mister Snitch has some interesting ideas for ramping up the Porkbusters effort into a more powerful grassroots movement. He suggests some “serious, real-world steps it must take” if it “wants to have a serious, real-world impact.” Among them:

2) Establish tangible relationships with politicians. That means get in their face. Literally. They need to see Porkbusters’ reps in their offices.

But it also means Porkbusters podcasts. Podcasts are more tangible than blog posts. They portray bloggers in a way politicians understand – faces, body language, voices, unedited behavior. More significantly, podcasts allow bloggers to easily cross over into television. Big-name bloggers (and certainly some are involved here) have an audience that they can drive to TV, and the newtworks know it (particularly networks that are hurting for compelling programming, such as MSNBC). Podcasts hand free content to the nets, along with a ready-made audience. Once Porkbusters podcasts are a TV staple, they will develop an offline constituency. Crossing over to the mainstream from online is key to Porkbusters’ success, and this is a step PB’s founders are particularly well-positioned to take.

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4) Raise funds. Raising funds accomplishes two goals. First, it is a demonstration of Porkbusters’ resolve. See points 3 and 4 at top. Proving that he could raise funds online was what lifted Howard Dean above the pack. (Knowing Dean as we now do, it turns out that’s pretty much all he had going for him, but it was enough to make him spokesman of the DNC today.) Raise funds, and raise them regularly, and you’ll become a player. Your calls will be returned. (Welcome to real-world politics!)

Now, there’s something to all of this. The status quo is backed not only be inertia but by powerful, well-organized, well-funded interest groups. It may well be that best way to fight that is through superior organization and fundraising. But are bloggers the best choice for doing this?

There are several problems, it seems to me, with bloggers trying to band together to become a Movement.

1) There are people who are much better at organizing and fundraising than we are. There are hundreds upon hundreds of established organizations who already do this. There are certainly numerous well-heeled groups out there already trying to call attention to wasteful government spending. Adding amateurs to the mix will likely not change the balance much.

2) We would, in essence, become a K-Street lobbying organization lobbying against K-Street lobbying organizations. And, as noted, there are already people doing precisely that.

3) By hammering on a collective agenda rather than offering our independent analysis on a case-by-case basis, we seriously risk compromising our appeal. I don’t want to be the blogging equivalent of the hacks who go on television representing the two political parties and won’t deviate from the party line one iota.

4) Most of us have day jobs. Who among us has the time to hang out in politicians’ offices, record amateur television shows, and so forth? It’s hard enough finding time to blog.

The best way for bloggers to influence the system is by being effective bloggers. In those instances where the Blogosphere has made a substantial impact–Trent Lott, RatherGate, Eason Jordan, etc.–it has because our research and writing has generated attention on its own accord.

Rather than trying to become a third-rate interest group, we should concentrate on being first-rate bloggers.

Update: I should caveat that blogging and activism aren’t mutually exclusive. DailyKos and RedState are obvious examples of combining those endeavors. In both cases, though, they are run by full-time political operatives. The above discussion is about bloggers in the pure sense–people from other walks of life who write on the side.