I was pleasantly surprised to see this morning that Brian Schweitzer, Governor of Montana, took the time to post a
diary in reply to
my own diary which had asked some questions about his "coal-to-liquid" proposal to use Montana coal to produce gasoline.
I would like to apologise for not being able to contribute meaningfully to that thread (I hope that different time zones provide a decent excuse!) and to express my gratitude both to Governor Schweitzer, for making the effort to respond on the substance of my questions and to kos for promoting my diary and Gov. Schweitzer's response on the front page.
This exchange of diaries, in my view, is an extremely important - and positive - development for us Kossacks.
First of all, I would like to underline that Governor Schweitzer's diary tackles a good number of the points I raised, and addresses the real underlying issues, especailly with respect to the potential environmental impact of the technology, but also its place as a temporary solution to a wider problem. The diary provides some pretty strong words about his commitment to make sure that this technology, which can potentially have some nasty side effects, is developed using "stringent environmental standards". This is great news. This may make it slightly more expensive in the short term, but it will also ensure that it really is clean and thus that it compromises as little as possible the future health of Americans. This is the only way forward, and it is great to see a politician in a position of power say it so explicitly.
Obviously, I can only encourage this focus on energy policy, which I believe, as you know if you read me regularly here on dKos, to be a topic of fundamental importance, and one where the Democrats can promote both sound policies and their values. Proposals like the development of clean coal-to-liquids in Montana make a lot of sense politically, industrially and economically and should certainly be encouraged, especially as part of a long term strategy to move towards clean sustainable energy.
As a second point, I would like to note that the simple fact that Governor Schweitzer felt it necessary and/or useful to respond to a diary on a blog shows that our virtual world is becoming a significant force in the real world as well. Of course, this is mostly true of dailyKos and a few other prominent places which attract large audiences - but hey, this diary was not written by kos, and the platform he has created can also be used by others to raise their own issues and get the same kind of attention. We are having an impact, and the smarter politicians now feel that they can no longer ignore us. And by us, I do mean the whole community, with its ability (through recommended diaries) to promote issues to prominence. The popularity of the site has meant that politicians are keen to write to us to reach a large audience (as the diaries by various Senators and Congresspersons demonstrate), but this is a new thing - now they also respond to us. If this leads to serious public two-way dialogue between politicians and citizens on policy issues, this is a GREAT development.
One reason why we are having an impact, I think, beyond the sheer audience numbers of dailykos, is that the daily dialogue and confrontation of viewpoints on the site allows for the best ideas to emerge. I've become a sort of spokesperson for energy issues on dKos, by bringing up the topic almost everyday, but the ideas are certainly not all mine, and the fact that my diaries get recommended regularly reflects the desire of many kossacks to emphasise the topic of energy more than the intrinsic quality of my writing. I provide bits of information and some commentary, and many others bring their own ideas, comments, corrections, questions and replies, and we all learn something. The fact that these discussions take place on a daily basis amongst a very wide and varied pool of participants allow for all the facts to emerge, for silly ideas to be discarded and for the better ideas to blossom.
Some of my recent diaries (such as Building together an effective Dem energy policy (I), or A proposal for a serious energy policy have been attempts to summarise all that wealth of input - and I think a good part of their potential strength and credibility comes from the fact that they have been vetted and improved by continuous community contributions and "monitoring". Thus the idea to make this an iterative process and try to develop "open source politics". I can confirm to you that diaries by Meteor Blades, devilstower and myself will come out in the near future to push that process and continue the work on a "Democratic Energy Manifesto" building on all the kossack contributions in earlier energy threads.
The idea is that this Manifesto will be noticed by Democratic politicians - and discussed, improved and, even better, used! The fact that Governor Schweitzer responded to my diary gives me even more hope today that this could actually happen, and that blogs like dKos could also function as open source think tanks.
Obviously, we should not rest on our laurels after one exchange of diaries... I will continue to bring up energy diaries, ideas and analysis and I count on all of you guys to keep these up front and center in our readers' attentions, and critique them, polish them. The expectation that Democratic politicians will respond to them and take stands on the points raised, or even better, take action on their basis should no longer be viewed as unreasonable.
As a final word, let le say also that while it has been a privilege to have such a voice here on dKos, on the US political scene to which I am a foreigner, my hope is to be able to eventually replicate this in Europe, via the European Tribune. We have started a good dialogue over there, but it's still a small site which needs to build up its audience, and I hope that you will all help to do this, by recommending the site to your firends in or from Europe, so that politicians start to notice us as well over here.