Progressive infrastructure

Gary Andres makes a very important point about the Left's new infrastructure in a recent Washington Times article.  The whole thing is very worth reading, but I want to focus on the infrastructure.

Democrats regularly benefit from well-organized, well-financed and effective outside liberal advocacy groups who relentlessly investigate, attack and criticize Republicans. The GOP lacks this kind of advocacy infrastructure.

Glenn Reynolds calls this sort of thing "battlespace preparation".  It's an appropriate term.

These outside groups have long existed, but the rise of the new media has accelerated the Left's political machine.  The organic elements, such as Moveon.org, Daily Kos, MyDD, Atrios, Talking Points Memo, etc, arose between 1998-2003, and they have been reinforced since then by very savvy, cultivated elements, such as the Center for American Progress, Media Matters, the Center for Independent Media and many more. 

The Left has taken their existing coalition and grassroots-based infrastructure, and combined it with this new internet-based Progressive Infrastructure to move messaging, mobilization and money into more effective channels.  They have seen three benefits from this.

• Better information and strategy coordination among coalition groups and the broader movement
• New channels for signaling and mobilizing the activist base
• Better targeting and influence of the media

Gary Andres continues...

Liberal activists have grown increasingly restive and well-organized over the past 15 years. Their grievances mounted when Republican political power grew in Washington between 1995 and 2006. Impeachment, the disputed 2000 election and the Iraq war all have helped focus liberal anger like a laser. [...]

[The Right has] also suffered over the past decade because they lacked a coherent narrative about what they would do with government once they controlled it - or at least a vision that could sustain a majority of American public opinion support. They needed new ideas and communications channels for these policies. Liberals are working on such a comprehensive model. [...]

[The Right] will never possess liberals' passion for the prize. But they need to build new advocacy institutions simply to fight back against the increasingly sophisticated and effective liberal infrastructure. If they don't, the "just leave me alone" conservatives will get some unwelcome company, overrun by the insurgent liberals at the gate.

This cannot be emphasized enough.  The Right is not just being beat at the polls.  That pendulum will swing back and forth.  The Right is being beat at the communications game.   You cannot lose the communications game and expect the pendulum to swing back in your direction.  It may swing away from the Left again, but it will not swing back to a "limited government, leave-us-alone" Right unless the Right can identify its unifying grievance, and communicate a clear, coherent, consistent and compelling narrative - an alternative vision of government to the one currently being sold.  

New distribution channels do not simply allow us to communicate "more"; they will allow us to move messaging, money and mobilization outside of the traditional establishment channels - from the entrenched bureaucracy of the Right, to a new, more vigorous and relevant "leave us alone" movement.

Republicans mocked Howard Dean for many years, but this Marc Ambinder post on Ted Stevens indictment should force some reconsideration...

Much of the territory has been hashed out, but his indictment on charges stemming from his alleged lies to federal investigators will almost certainly add a Senate seat to the Democratic column.  It will almost certainly demoralize Republicans in Alaska and excite Democrats. It means that the Obama campaign will put more resources into flipping the state. It means that any senator who got Vecco money -- Norm Coleman? -- will be called to account. 

I am reminded of this story by Matt Bai (also mentioned in his book, The Argument) about Howard Dean spending DNC money (and frustrating Democratic Party insiders) hiring staffers in Alaska...

In paying for two new staffers, Dean had, virtually overnight, doubled the size of Alaska’s beleaguered state party, which used to consist of only an executive director and a part-time fund-raiser. But now, as Dean considered the vastness of the state’s landscape, he decided that one organizer wasn’t enough.

[...]

That night, after meeting with Dean at the sad little storefront office that houses the state party, Alaska’s party chairman, Jake Metcalfe, announced to 400 assembled Democrats at a fund-raiser that Dean had just promised to hire an additional organizer for the state. The ballroom erupted in grateful applause as Dean sat there beaming. The members of his staff, gently rolling their eyes, began calling back to Washington, warning the political staff that they would need to find the money for yet another salary in, of all places, Alaska.

Just two years later, Democrats are competitive in, of all places, Alaska.

I’ve often talked about how the Left is building infrastructure that moves messaging, money and mobilization outside of the traditional Democratic establishment. Here’s another perfect example. With Swing Semester (501c4) and Swing Semester Civics (501c3), the Progressives are redeploying the Clinton and Obama campaign’s tremendously successful youth organizing efforts from Party campaigns to ideologically progressive organizations...

Swing Semester 2008 is the nation’s first political immersion program. We provide a bridge from interest to action for college students, recent graduates, and other young people who care deeply about their country and want to be a part of American history even as they study it. This September, over 250 passionate young people will venture out to eight cities in “swing” states for 10 weeks of intensive electoral work. They will live with host families, work in field campaigns, and engage in critical thinking to better understand their country and themselves.

Swing Semester 2008 is an investment in the most important asset of the progressive movement – its people. In the short run, our participants will knock on almost 2 million doors in the nation’s most critical swing states. Our greatest impact, however, will come from guiding hundreds of young citizens and committed families through an experience that will challenge, deepen, and energize us all for a lifetime of civic engagement.

Building that kind of infrastructure allows them to create an alternate power structure and whip mechanisms that influence the direction of the Progressive Movement and the Democratic Party.

What’s more, that are taking many elements that traditionally belong to Party-focused entities (e.g., campaigns and Campaign Committees) and creating independent, ideologically-based versions of them, moving power from the Democratic Party bureaucracy (which exists to elect Democrats, not to be “progressive”) over to the Progressive movement.  This movement of messaging, money and mobilization outside the traditional Party establishment changes the incentives of politicians from “obey the Democrat’s rules” to “obey the Progressives rules”.

The result – both risky and potentially rewarding – will be a Democratic Party much more responsive and submissive to the Democratic base and the far Left.

Note: 501(c)4 groups are allowed to “engage in political campaign activity”, but that cannot be “the organization’s primary activity.”   However, the Swing Semester program ”runs from September 2nd through November 7th, just after election day” and only in potential swing states.  It’s difficult to see how political campaign activity is anything but their organization’s primary activity.