Six years ago I was a Democratic GOTV volunteer for the Gore/Lieberman campaign (six long years ago) who did not have an internet connection at home in my studio apartment.
I would go the Claremont Branch of the Berkeley Public library every other night and use their computers to print out whatever polling I could find from races around the country. There was this guy, Zogby, who was consistently predicting a tighter finish to the Presidential race than what other polls had indicated. (Everybody was saying Bush was going to win handily.)
When it came to getting information about elections online, I was hooked. In fact, given the strength of the Nader campaign, I was concerned that Gore might win an electoral college victory but lose the popular vote. It spurred me into further action: I called my college friends on the telephone.
We’ve come a long way, baby…
I’m sitting here in a comfortable chair typing this on a Mac laptop with Airport Wifi after a hard day’s GOTV in Tracy California with folks I met online through the blog Dailykos.com. Two of the folks who joined me today had never been out canvassing before. The internet and a diary on dkos brought them to the party.
Now, I’m entering a diary on a website, Swing State Project, that made its name providing the kind of information in 2004 that I so hungrily ate up in 2000. Going forward, Swing State project will feature user-generated diaries and content, just like Dailykos.com.
This IS a new era.
I have no idea whether we will take the House or the Senate on Tuesday. I’m hopeful, but I know that none of us really knows.
But there is something I DO know already, and that is that we’ve passed through a portal and we aren’t turning back.
Blogging and doing politics on the internet have revolutionized political participation in this country.
Just like diaries on SSP, the internet has innovated how we participate. We are interactive. We do politics in an interaction-rich environment.
So, yes, today, in conversation with a Swing voter in Tracy California who was intending to vote for Richard Pombo…a fellow canvasser and I handed a flyer with the URL to Jerry McNerney’s website…a website designed by another colleague from dailykos (Malacandra)…and paid for in part with funds raised by soliciting netroots donations from all over the country, including this website.
The tag line for that online campaign? “We all Live in Richard Pombo’s District” A phrase I coined on my blog k/o one year ago.
Now perhaps we netroots canvassers swung that Tracy swing voter to our side. Perhaps not.
But that is nowhere near where we were, or I was personally, just six short years ago in 2000. Nowhere close.
And we all know it.
Win or lose. We’ve already won so much. We’ve crossed a threshhold and we aren’t turning back.
Congratulations on innovating participation by featuring diaries on SSP! It means a great deal to be one of the early diaries here.
We’ve only just begun.
peace
k/o