The Revolution Will Be Somethinged...

Jonah Goldberg is in the process of dissing the blogosphere's influence in the electoral process:

The internet is a wonderful thing, but it ain't no Brave New World for electoral politics -- yet. And it probably won't be until we have online voting. And if we do get that, it will be a revolution all right. And like most revolutions the result will be horrible.

- not to mention young voters and online political organizations like Dean's. The latter has yet to be seen - Dean's ability to raise money online shouldn't be dismissed quite so quickly as Jonah seems ready to do - but it really must be noted that the next time somebody succeeds in turning the youth vote into a potent political weapon will be the first. It's often promised, never delivered.

I'd also like to note the delicious irony of Goldberg snickering at the blogosphere in a post on NRO's The Corner (which is, of course, a blog itself). Surely he thought posting that would have some oomph...

(Via Matthew Stinson, who has a different take on it all)

Comments

[MattK/D1]

Moe,

That's strange. Didn't you just say the other day you didn't like the term blogosphere?

Oh my God, have they gotten to you, too?

(cue ominous music, fade to black)

[Moe Lane]

"Didn't you just say the other day you didn't like the term blogosphere?"

I did? Jordan must've been playing with the amnesia sprays again. Can't keep track of who's doing what to whom anymore: "I rule you / you rule me / someone rules the both of we / It's a vast Conspiracy / The Illuminati Polka" (Tom Smith)

Moe

PS: MattK/D1, whyinhell don't you have a blog?

[MattK/D1]

PS: MattK/D1, whyinhell don't you have a blog?

1) Because by visiting other people's blogs, I can at least pretend I don't spend so much time doing this, or that really and truly, I will cut back, day after tomorrow.

2) So that I can pick and choose from a wealth of things to comment on, and thus hopefully minimize making a complete ass of myself.

3) Bad memories of the dangers of absolute power corrupting absolutely. :) *

*I have repented and dumped the Kool-Ade.

[Moe Lane]

"1) Because by visiting other people's blogs, I can at least pretend I don't spend so much time doing this, or that really and truly, I will cut back, day after tomorrow."

Pallative, not cure.

"2) So that I can pick and choose from a wealth of things to comment on, and thus hopefully minimize making a complete ass of myself."

I used that excuse myself.

"3) Bad memories of the dangers of absolute power corrupting absolutely. :) *"

Well, if you don't actually want to, that's a different story. :)

[Katherine]

If it's going to be a real sea change, and not just a useful organizing/fundraising tool that only gets you so far--it's going to have to start to replace the traditional media to some degree. Is such a thing possible? I don't know.

Some less partisan sites and some real reporting would help.

[sidereal]

I'm not sure it has any function replacing the traditional media. Blogs with comments really serve two functions. . information dissemination and community maintenance. But information dissemination in the political sphere is mostly image control and scandal-breaking (If it was actually about providing information on candidates, the candiate policy position pages on their sites would get more hits than Drudge). Blogs can't add much to image control.

That leaves scandal-breaking and community maintenance. The blogosphere has had some notorious success with the former, but the latter is a better long-term focus.