Kerry net chief: cool software doesn't win elections

[bemildred]

I consider some of this obtuse, perhaps deliberately, in that a
principal use of the internet ought to be grass-roots organization
building. Still, a few good points are made.

Zack Exley, the online communications chief for the Kerry-Edwards campaign, offered a brutally frank assessment of his team's elections tactics today. It probably didn't win him many friends at the Berkman Law School's Internet and Society 2004 conference here at Harvard, many of whom have come to hear their faith in the goodness of the internet affirmed - but it's the most accurate account we've heard.

Exley was on a panel with his counterpart Chuck DeFeo, eCampaign manager of Bush-Cheney '04, discussing how the net had influenced politics this year.

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"Republicans are beating us at what used to be our game: the grassroots approach. That's real politics," he said.

"Basically (the Democrats) don't trust the people." When the GOP had lost elections, they didn't joke en masse about moving to Canada. They got their heads down and built an organization.

Register UK

[Spinzonner]

1. So did the Mafia

[bobweaver]

2. Unless that "cool software" is the kind that voting machines use

[Radical Activist]

3. He made some good points

and it's about time someone said that.

Of course, we should have learned this lesson in Iowa where Kerry's superior field organization won big over Dean's glorified internet organization. The internet is a good start but you can't win if your volunteers aren't willing to get out of the house and do more than send emails and meetup.

The Internet can be a very valuable part of a grass-roots organization, but it can't replace grass-roots organizing. Getting people together for a meetup is good, but meetups were most valuable when they were used as platform to get people more involved in other activities.

There was too much hype over Dean's internet organizing this time. I think an even better model for effective internet organizing was how International ANSWER used the net to organize numerous major protests among an unorganized and decentralized peace movement. They integrated internet and on-the-ground field organizing very well. That was excellent pioneering work that happened before Dean got started.