A New Grassroots

Recently, the FEC held hearings to gather information for promulgating (or not promulgating) election rules to cover the internet, including blogs. Atrios testified at the hearings, as did Kos. Kos's prepared statement (posted at the link I just gave) gives a pretty good reason why the FEC should not attempt such regulation:

It is my position that the Internet is so different than television, radio, and print media, that the current campaign finance regime doesn't fit and different techniques must be employed. It would be like asking me to wear a suit that was designed for an NFL offensive lineman to wear - some serious tailoring is needed.

How are Internet technologies different than their offline media counterparts?

The barriers to entry are ridiculously low. A computer and an Internet connection can turn anyone into a publisher who can speak to a mass audience. Every single one of the communication technologies I mentioned above - the blogging, podcasting, Yahoo Groups, etc - is available to people for free. By comparison, it takes millions to start or buy a newspaper, television station, magazine, or radio station.

And that low barrier to entry ensures that anyone can communicate. It ensures that corporations or labor unions or wealthy individuals have no bigger say than people like me... [H]ere is a medium that didn't care about things that didn't matter - like class, wealth, influence, or social networks.
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So we have a democratic medium that allows anyone to have true freedom of the press. We have average citizens, publishing their thoughts, their research, their journalism, their activism, and encouraging others to do the same. Almost daily on my site, readers exhort each other to engage in some kind of political activity, whether it's phone calls to particular members of Congress, discussions about impending legislation or fundraising to help a favored candidate. This is what democracy should look like - an active, engaged, passionate community working with like-minded individuals around the country and even around the world to make that world a better place.

Kos was not just uttering some self-serving pie-in-the-sky idealism in his statement. Howard Dean showed how effective the internet can be in a campaign during the 2004 Presidential Primaries. More recently, a special election for the Second District of Ohio House seat, gives dramatic evidence of the same thing. Paul Hackett's campaign gave a shout-out to the blogging world and over $350,000 was raised in less than a week. What is significant are the numbers given out by Act Blue (which acted as the clearing house): 6945 donors gave $366,465.47. The numbers have no doubt changed since I last checked, but the figures show that the average contribution was less than $75.

The FEC shouldn't be looking to enact regulations on the blogs, but rather should be sending out emcpuragement. Surely we would have a more honest and responsive government if its elected officials received their campaign funding from individuals rather than from corporations, unions, and PACs. Campaigns still retain the responsibility for the record keeping and for advising contributors of the appropriate election laws.

Perhaps the best potential side-effect of this new type of grassroots effort is that we might be able to dispel some of the cynicism that has infected so much of the citizenry. And that would be a good thing.