The Internet allows us to form and sustain coalitions and achieve success in a more ad hoc, distributed way. We have achieved more in a few days than our great grandparents did politically in a few years.
Essentially, the dynamic I see at work in the Senate and the Congress, and even campaigns for the Presidency, are free agent Senators, Representatives and Presidential Candidates seeking the support of ad hoc coalitions that are becoming more and more web based, and less and less party dependent.
What do political parties do for us anymore?
Think about. We Kossacks are overwhelmingly Democratic. Sure we got our Nader lovers, fiercely bizzare Greens, ashamed Republicans and angry Libertarians among us, but the majority of us are Democrats. Kos is a Democrat. The Daily Kos, as described by him, is a Democratic blog where discussion of Democratic politics takes place.
But we spend half our time, if not more, complaining about Democratic Senators over their votes than about Republican Senators who proposed the legislation and Republican Presidents who sign it.
We spend more time lobbying our own party than we so spreading the Democratic Party message. And what about the Democratic Party message? There is no message except the message of reaction. As a minority party we are forced into that position, but really, right now, and for quite some time, there has been no Democratic Party message recognized by the voters.
Political parties used to be about party bosses deciding which candidate and what policy position they were to take, and then through a top down command structure, providing that candidate with legions of supporters and activists.
But over time, and through the primary election process, the party bosses no longer select the party candidate. Through party platforms, which are meaningless and unread and unimportant nowadays becaust the very interest groups who draft them decide to not stick to the compromise message of the platform and pursue the own message independent of the party and platform, the party policy positions are no longer crafted by the party bosses. And with the advent of the internet and blogs, the party supporters and activists no longer are pressed into action by party bosses. If anything, we press them into action by blackmail.
So what do political parties do beside hold conventions and raise money?
Do we need the party structure anymore?
I don't think so. Just as free agency entered sports, it has entered politics. The activists and supporters, such as ourselves, are free agents, lobbying Senators and Congressmen with our positions. Senators and Congressmen are free agents when they appeal to us for support. Indeed, Senators and Congressmen are even free agents with respect to their own parties. Senators Jeffords, Chafee, Shelby, Nighthorse Campbell, Lieberman, Collins and Snowe have all either bucked their party lines recently or have actually left the party that they originally were a part of.
Your thoughts?
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