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Online democracy is here to stay

Translated from the original, in Dutch.

A lot can change in four years. Back in 2004, Zack Exley, the online chief of the Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, had lists of supporters who signed up via the Internet. But the campaign-leaders in the field quickly discarded these, he said.
“They said, ‘People from the Internet? You can’t do anything with them. They are strange types, they want to play video-games.’”

In 2008, the Internet decided the Democratic preliminaries, says Exley, who is now a political consultant at the Internet firm Thoughtswork Inc.

“It changed politics completely,” he said. “Without the Internet, Barack Obama would have never succeeded in freeing all the energy from young volunteers. He would never have been capable of raising as much money from so many small donors. Hillary Clinton would have been the Democratic candidate, there is no doubt about that.”

Obama ’08 is more then a normal campaign, says Andrew Rasiej from Personal Democracy Forum, a specialist group in the area of politics and Internet.

“It is a media-operation. They understand how strong this new power is. They handily use the great change which is taking place.”

The social networking systems that are the grounds of ‘Web 2.0’, such as YouTube and Facebook, facilitate what is sometimes called ‘Democracy 2.0’.

Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the first politician who used newspapers on a large scale to rally support. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, with his famous Fireside Chats quickly owned the new medium of radio. John F. Kennedy was the first president who recognised the power of television. Barack Obama still has to win, but is being put on this list by Internet experts as the first candidate who really exploits the possibilities of the latest new medium.

“From the beginning on they chose for this networking-approach,” says Rasiej.

It became a bottom-up campaign. Hillary Clinton also uses Internet organisation, but started a lot later and appears to be thinking more traditionally. She has the best Democratic campaign ever built. But it is one of the best old models, with a top-down command system, experts say. For a networking campaign, one has to have trust in his supporters and accept that they have their own input. For example, Obama supporters are setting up own offices everywhere, without support of the campaign headquarters.

“Obama has more sympathy for this, due to his experiences [pounding the streets] of Chicago,” says Rasiej.

Dean

This is also the story of the new-generation Democratic organisers. Joe Rospars, the man who is leading Obama’s Internet operation, had already seen the sensational but failed campaign of outsider Howard Dean. It showed how fast one can organise people on the Internet. The organisers in the field are often Dean veterans. They grew up with Internet.

“Obama is the first one who brought together Internet and organisation in the field,” says Exley.

It has implications: “It is gigantically what he did here, they recruited 7,000 precinct captains,” says Dan Ancona, an Internet organiser in California.

 

“I am very impressed by their field operation in North Carolina. I have never seen such a thing,” says Zephyr Teachout,  a professor at Duke University and one of Dean’s Internet pioneers.

“They give half a million people the feeling being owners of the campaign,” says Tracy Russo, who led to Internet operation of the fallen candidate John Edwards. “This gives normal citizens way more power then before.”

Internet specialists agree: Obama’s campaign is a symptom of a new era in politics, one in which individual citizens have influence because they are capable of easily getting together online.

“We are at the beginning of a paradigm-change,” says Rasiej from Personal Democracy Forum.

Great blessing

Money is the most obvious example.

“The small donors change politics,” says professor Teachout.

Traditionally, a candidate has to listen to the big donors. Now, the candidate can collect support and finances outside the existing structures, and spread movies and ideas outside the established media.

“It is a great blessing for democracy.”

“Previously, one could fail as a candidate because rich people disliked you,” says Zack Exley.

Now outsiders have a great chance, if they address people. The campaign from libertarian Republican rebel Ron Paul, who became big on the Internet, is still going on.

This new treatment also has consequences for after the elections, experts say. Obama, if he wins will be ‘the first president with five million email-addresses’.

“What if he wants to reform healthcare and the Congress is upsetting him, then he can mobilise millions of citizens,” dreams Exley.

“He can think bigger, and finally tackle the big things,” Teachout, who finds Obama’s campaign a bit over-organised, hopes that the network he created will live on independently and will correct him where necessary.

“Internet will be an extra check on the presidency.”

Rasiej says that 20th century politics are now making way for those of the 21st century. This process is becoming visible in this election-cycle.

“Back to the past is not possible anymore.”

Tags: barack obama, campaign, democracy, facebook, internet, social network, web 2.0, you tube,

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