Netroots Rising

For audio of our talk at Stanford on February 17, 2009, please click here. Hopefully, there will be video coming as well, plus audio and video from our Berkeley presentation.

Nate and I will be speaking at Stanford and Berkeley next week on “Netroots Rising.” Should be fun; thanks to my good friend Yosem Companys - Wes Clark’s national Hispanic advisor in 2003/2004, quoted extensively in the book - for setting this all up!

In “Netroots Rising,” Nate and I highlight the contributions dozens of netroots activists, “ordinary people doing extraordinary things.” Of course, there aren’t just dozens of people like the ones in our book, there are millions. And today’s Washington Post highlights one of them - Chris West, 29, of Fairfax County, Virginia.

…What she heard from Obama during his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and what she read in his book “Dreams From My Father” convinced her that he — with her help — could turn dissatisfaction into action.

So West, 29, took her first step into politics. She went to Obama’s Web site, set up an account and began an almost two-year journey through a new kind of grass-roots campaign, centered largely in her electronic world. She met like-minded supporters, began organizing and helped build a network of volunteers with a reach so vast that, in a Washington Post poll released this week, more than half of voters surveyed in Virginia said they had been contacted by the Obama campaign about supporting the Democrat in his bid for the White House.

If Obama becomes the first Democrat in 44 years to win the state, it will be in large part because of the Chrisi Wests of the world. They have sent e-mails, made phone calls and knocked on doors. They have texted and Twittered. And the Obama campaign has helped make it happen by speaking the language of cellphones, text messages and e-mail accounts — and by giving thousands of young Americans who communicate this way the power to participate.

Does any of that sound familiar? If so, it certainly should. On the Webb campaign alone, I had the privilege of meeting hundreds of “Chrisi Wests,” people like C.W. Dean, Dave Leichtman, Dave Jernigan, Mary Detweiler, Barbara Kreykenbohm, Susan Mariner, Todd Smyth, Marc Greidinger, Cassie Arnold, Tom Counts, Jan-Lars Mueller, Abbi Easter, Chris Ambrose, Ken Kukovich, Annabel Park, Eric Byler, Josh Chernila, Lee Diamond, and many others.

Oh, and just to emphasize a point I’ve made before - it is THESE are the people who ultimately defeated George Allen, not a one-time fluke slipup by Allen when he said the word “macaca.” Sure, that hurt Allen badly, but without Webb’s 10,000-strong “ragtag army,” we wouldn’t have been able to take advantage of Allen’s mistake. Just as Barack Obama’s own “ragtag army” today is taking advantage of their own candidate’s amazing strengths, as well as John McCain’s and Sarah Palin’s fundamental flaws. When Barack Obama wins on November 4, it will be about many factors, including Americans’ desire for change, “the economy stupid,” an incredibly inspiring and eloquent candidate running an amazing campaign, and much more. But it will also, first and foremost, be about the Chris Wests of the world, millions of “ordinary people doing extraordinary things.” To me, that’s extremely inspirational.

I just thought I’d pass along this excellent review of “Netroots Rising.” Here’s an excerpt:

…it is worth praising the way in which the authors of Netroots Rising have offered a dramatic and evocative account of recent triumphs achieved by net-based organisations, particularly the web-based draft movement to elect Democrat Jim Webb Senator of Virginia in 2006. Recalling very recent history, the bloggers masterfully weave together memories of the dramatic and improbable victory Webb won against wealthy businessman Harris Miller in the Democratic primary, and subsequent ejection of republican George Allen, detailing precisely through a wide variety of emails, newspaper articles and face-to-face interviews the spin, grassroots organisation and raw energy that contributed to the campaign that proved the difference in getting a majority in the House of Senate. These are coupled with superb depictions of those involved in the 2006 election and how they react to immense political changes that are exceptional in their own right. Among their portraits of the Old Dominion’s leading politicos, Feld and Wilcox make us appreciate the charismatic and passionate Webb as he hoarsely belts out message of progressive change as the campaign enters its final stretch, and loath his boorish republican rival as he oafishly struggles to understand how his viral slurring of one of Webb’s Indian-American volunteers finally comes to kill off his career and embryonic dreams of the White House. In their characterisations of many of the political engaged citizens who get involved with his candidate’s campaign, the authors demand an admiration those such as S R. Sidarth, who stand tall in the face of being dubbed not part of ‘the real Virginia’ by Allen and others like him. And in doing so once again, they encourage the reader to appreciate fully the grassroots activism of countless progressive Americans, their drive to democratise the process of selecting those that represent them and prize it away from the hands of corporate politics in their country.

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up! Read the entire review here. Thanks.

This morning, I was interviewed on KPOJ, “Portland’s Progressive Talk Station, about Netroots Rising. If you’re interested, check it out here (a bit over halfway through).

Here is a review of Netroots Rising from a reader in Chile. My Spanish is pretty rusty, but this looks like an excellent review from what I can tell.

El libro se plantea desde distintas experiencias de casos, todos ocurridos en la cuna del Partido Demócrata, de cómo los activistas online han ido creando nuevos espacios de participación. Desde la memorable campaña presidencial de Howard Dean, cuando gracias a este movimiento se comenzó a dar una nueva forma de financiamiento político, el mismo que hoy le da el pie a Barack Obama para prescindir del dinero de lobbystas y basar su campaña en los pequeños aportes personales por Internet; hasta la caída de Tom DeLay, otrora poderoso senador republicano, como consecuencia de las denuncias de corrupción que este mismo movimiento se encargó de difundir.

Sin duda, el argumento central del libro es que se acabó el tiempo de las decisiones verticales, donde las cúpulas partidarias o el establishment toma las decisiones por el resto. Internet les ha entregado una nueva herramienta que permite generar procesos participativos y horizontales. Se acabaron los candidatos intocables y que basan su éxito en el carisma, se premia cada vez más a aquel que se encuentra más en contacto y sintonía con sus electores. Todo esto se concluye después de revisar los diversos casos que presentan los autores, desde el ya mencionado Dean, pasando por Kaine, Webb y hasta una pequeña referencia a Obama.

If I understand this correctly, it sounds like an accurate description of the book. Anyway, it’s pretty cool that someone’s reading about the Webb campaign, the Virginia blogosphere, Richard Morrison, etc. in Chile!

Over at Jaybird’s Jottings, Netroots Rising gets a nice mention:

Moulitsas, who co-authored Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics, has also written a new book titled Taking on the System, Rules for Radical Change in a Digital Era. The timing was perfect for me, coming on the heels of reading Lowell Feld and Nate Wilcox’s excellent, Netroots Rising: How a Citizen Army of Bloggers and Online Activists Is Changing American Politics. Their book piqued my interest in the netroots movement and as someone steeped in old school, I felt a strong need to learn more about the new ways.

I’m currently reading Markos’ book, and hopefully will have a review shortly. One thing both books - Markos’ and ours - certainly have in common is that they both demonstrate “how ordinary citizens can make a difference.” Another is that they both tell “the stories behind the movement.” They’re great stories, too…check ‘em out!

This morning brings an excellent “Netroots Rising” review by “Bloosier Hysteria”:

I sat down to read this and as cliche as it may sound, I couldn’t put it down. The first-hand anecdotes demonstrate the very real implications of the internet in politics, but more importantly they help to show just how much untapped potential remains within the growing blogosphere. If you are already a motivated blogger, rest assured– your work can and will have a lasting impact on future elections. And if like me you questioned the ability of online activism to really change our country’s historically top-down approach to politics– think again. Netroots Rising is that good.

Thanks for the review, “RedhawkHoosier” - much appreciated!

This (Daily Kos getting into the polling business big time) is truly impressive, and a sign of how far the netroots has come in the past few years:

Given the success of the early-season polling, I’ve decided for more polling. Lots, lots more.

First of all, we’re going to join the ranks of the “daily tracking poll” outfits. Polling begins today, and with a three-day rolling average, our first published results will come Thursday. Unlike other outfits, we’ll remain fully transparent about our results, including the daily samples (which everyone else refuses to release).

We’re also going to aggressively poll presidential, Senate, and even House races all over the country, with a package that will give us an average of more than one poll a day until this thing is called (yup, that’s more than 56 polls, which is how many days we have left to the election). We’ve got some ramping up to do, so just three polls this week (Maine, North Carolina, and Mississippi), but we’ll have a flood of them coming in before long. I’m particularly excited about targeting a couple dozen (or so) House races, given the dearth of polling at that level.

All the stuff in that Roll Call story will remain — we won’t cherry-pick which polls or information to feature. Every poll I commission will be published, with the crosstabs including all the info delivered by R2K. I’ll continue to run all the good stuff, the bad stuff, and anything in between.

This is going to be fun.

Fun indeed, and another sign of the “Netroots Rising!”

From Mobile Diner.