Blogs, Technology, and Politics

When we went to Kyla's graduation, Dara was getting coffee and the shrinkwrapped continental breakfast at the Motel8 when she discovered that there was a group of Democrats staying there as part of their state caucus. They were all rabid Ned Lamont supporters, former Leiberman supporters, all suffering from deep disappointment verging on anger. They were amused that I even knew who Lamont was, coming from California, so I was filling them in on how much visibility the race had in the blogosphere. They were just older, politically involved types, used to knocking on doors and participating in get-out-the-vote activities, who didn't know a blog from a bog, so it was fun to talk with them. They were reveling in the fact that Lamont had come up with something like 30% of the vote in the caucus the night before. Anyway, it was interesting to me because I've been following the race from afar with both a political and technical view.

Now the race has emerged as a bit of a touchstone, so we'll see how it turns out. Today, though, I was amused to see this posting about a lobbyist who is following Lamont around and campaigning for Leiberman. Leaving aside the politics itself, it's fascinating to me that the combination of blogs and YouTube is empowering people like this woman who has a mildly popular blog to get a message like this across to people like me who would otherwise never have seen it. Of course, there are plenty of paid professionals out there masquerading as Joe Everyman on the Internet, but any way you slice it there are some fundamental changes coming in the role of traditional media vs. online media and the role that people who are not professional journalists play in things. In the broad scheme of things, I think it will be a rough road, but in the end it will be a good thing for all of us.