Most of the bloggers in Florida are right on board with the state party. They are part of their messaging system, which is a sign of organization.
But blogging loses its purpose when it only gives out the party message, whether national or state level.
David in this post has done a better job of presenting both sides of the argument, but he falls short of presenting the whole truth. The truth is that
"Florida Democrats were all for it"...March 2006. All for the early primary as far ahead as 2006He has done a good job of presenting the conflicts at the convention.
Whirlwind convention week-endHe mentions something we have talked about here, John Russell being kicked out of the convention. John beat the DCCC candidate last time, but is being excluded from county and state party functions now. What David doesn't realize is that the party leaders are trying to paint John as not credible. They can easily do that to anyone here because they have the bloggers and media totally on board with them.
After my brief stay at the anti-war rally, I wandered over to the Convention to see what those Democrats that were not demonsrating were talking about. As soon as I arrived, there was a group of about 20 people dressed in conservative suits holding 'Hillary '08' signs, chanting, and drowning out any other noise in the Convention...their appearance reminded me of the 'Conservative revolution' during the 2000 vote counting debacle, where paid Bush campaign staffers pretended to be citizens demanding a stop to the recount. Soon after, I saw DFAer and Congressional candidate, John Russell getting kicked out for some reason...I don't know why, but I saw him arguing with security while a cameraperson trailed behind documenting the entire affair. I continued to meander through the halls speaking to a variety of people about issues and candidates that they supported. All of the candidates were represented there even though they pledged not to campaign in Florida...some were volunteers, while others were obviously (and yes, I asked) paid campaign staff. After being greeted with this hypocricy, while some of these same people talked about what a shame it was that the DNC isn't counting Florida's primary votes, I began to dig for answers on where people stood on the Primary issue.
David seeks out more opinions.
I have to say, that emotion seemed split. Some would loudly boast of how unfair the national Party is treating Floridians (after all, we were at the State Party Convention), while others quietly complained that the Party deserves this treatment for supporting so many Conservative Democrats like Bill Nelson...one person actually said that the 'fix was in' and that Nelson will be Hillary's running mate. I say 'loudly and quietly' because it was some of the same people that claimed both! If I had a notepad with me I would have written down some excellent quotes. Overall, I think people don't know what to think, because we all want to influence the primary results, but the internal politics of both the national and state Party have confused and divided sentiment. I thought it was a sad commentary that someone was actually giving 'screw Dean' buttons out, although I didn't see anyone wearing one.
No one has asked the opinions of the many who did not go to the convention this year who usually attend.
His talk about the blogging network here reveals that the party leaders consider them important only insofar as getting the message of the party out. I am afraid that is just as true on a national level.
I heard alot about how useful the Netroots are in getting the message out for the Party or a campaign. Many speakers talked about how to get bloggers to spread the campaign message to further widen the reach of the given message. A couple speakers even said they actually send talking points to 10 or 12 bloggers around the state to imbed them into the netroots dialogue...a useful strategy. Others spoke about how to utilize the grassroots organizations on the ground to do most of the door to door campaigning on behalf of the goven DEC...an effective way to save campaign dollars for other uses.
What was kind of disturbing, is what I did not hear. There was much talk of how the net/grass roots can help the Party, but no talk of the other way around...what they can do for the net/grass roots. No talk of how what we say in blogs or discuss in our groups or DEC meetings around the state will be acted upon...it was a definite feeling that we are their tools and work for them as oposed to the other way around. To me, this highlights a major problem within our political system that we see as a recurring theme: Our representatives forget that they work for us, and fail to listen...the war, health care, and global warming are but 3 examples of our cries for help falling on deaf ears. This remains true with the Party as a whole, it seems, and we must continue to work to change this!
His post was in contrast to that of Matt Stoller at Open Left. David presented both sides, even though he still failed to put the blame at the feet of the state party where it belonged....but it was much farther evolved in thinking than Matt Stoller's when he attacked Dean using the Florida talking points. He was a main speaker at the convention.
Florida's Silent RevolutionReading this one would think Florida Demcrats had sprouted wings and were speaking angelic things.
And his earlier post which attracted the DNC attention in a negative way.
Blogger uses state talking points without knowing both sidesThe DNC spokesperson called Stoller that day to tell him he had multiple errors.
Bloggers are good for sending out messages, but they can quickly lose their effectiveness if they become nothing but mouthpieces for a party. Florida bloggers need to be honest and speak of these issues clearly and honestly. They know the truth, they need to speak it and not be on board with just one side.
Thanks for a pretty fair post, David.
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