Open Left

A great peice

Though I think we are actually going further back than just the 19th century (ie to the age of the pamphlets)

The media monopoly of the last 50 years was a product of high barriers to entry resulting from the enourmous capital costs required by television.  It seems obvious that this barrier to entry has collapsed.

There are two words that interest me in politics right now: collaboration and entrepreneurship.

Campaigns have been very top down affairs in the last 50 years.  Activists all over the country can all probably tell the story of the local campaign run by activists who find themselves marginalized by the arrival of the professionals (who then in turn screw things up.  See the 2002 Fla Gov race, for eg).  So what is desperately needed is to  change the fundemental relationship between the center and the grass roots.  

As someone who spends a good deal of the professional life trying to get people to collaborate in a private setting, I have been profoundly impressed by the Obama Campaign's ability to create what appears to be a collobarative environment.  The Obama campaign also seems to enabled an entrepreneurial environment where activists have been encouraged to take the lead in local organizing.  

The Obama Campaign's accomplishments in this area are enourmously significant.  

---

by: fladem @ Mon Jun 23, 2008 at 19:52:25 PM CDT