Tuesday, January 5, 2010     previous post <> next post

The 2010 Election...

The Huffington Post published a blog post entitled, "Dems' Only Hope For 2010: Make The Race About The Other Guy."

Democratic incumbents face the most threatening political environment since the Republican landslide of 1994 -- and they know it.

The trends are all moving in the wrong direction. Voters are shifting to the right; white antipathy to the President has intensified; the popular consensus backing Obama and his agenda has collapsed in less than a year; and a growing number of center-conservative House Democrats are jumping ship. It's not that voters are suddenly becoming big fans of the Republican Party -- its poll numbers are falling just as rapidly as the Democrats' -- but political scientists and strategists from across the spectrum agree that simply by virtue of being the opposition, the GOP is positioned to make large gains on November 2. There's even an outside chance they'll wrest back control of the House.

Now, I happen to agree with that assesment.

So what should Democratic candidates do to survive 2010? A strong consensus has emerged among Democratic operatives, based on a strategy developed under the guidance of pollster Geoff Garin. Garin declined to be interviewed for this story, but other party strategists say the most crucial order of business in each contest is to prevent Republican challengers from turning the race into a referendum on the Democratic candidate, the Democratic Party, President Obama, or all three. Rather, they say, Democrats need to turn the public's attention to the failings of the Republican candidate and the national GOP.

And, I just happen to disagree with that conclusion -- obviously, these people do not understand the Web and how to use it. What the Democrats need to do is create a 21st century political movement -- We need to recognize that the Personal Computer and the Internet are designed for the benefit of the few -- you have heard the expression about the long tail -- all of the benefits go to the people at the head while those relegated to the tail are treading water, so to speak.

If we wish to create a political movement we will need to reverse priorities -- the comments to a blog become more important than the author. Yes, I am saying that if we want a government Of, By, and For the people then we must give higher priority to the words of the people. Authors will become more like teachers -- granted, some egos might take offense; however, teaching is a very noble occupation -- right??

An author's value will be measured by the sophistication of his/her followers -- each author will be building a social network -- the basis for future subscription fees. Do you see the genius in this?? We will be mining the wisdom of the crowd -- authors will be learning also.

BTW, you can see this type of blog comments in action by downloading my PDMSB software and checking out the SARead option.

http://pdmsb.com/download.htm

To be continued...

Doug Skoglund skoglund@pdmsb.com

Off-line discussion seminars http://nationalcomputerassociation.com
Product Information and download http://pdmsb.com