Personal Democracy Forum: Monday Morning

Thoughts from Day 1 of the Personal Democracy Forum (PDF) in New York City.

• Zephyr Teachout is discussing how people organize to discuss and act upon their interests, and argues that “association” has declined in American society.  However, Zephyr says the internet allows people to become much more engaged participants in the political process.   In response, Mike Van Winkle makes a very good point….

Of course, she didn’t discuss how the government is now responsible for all the social capacities that were once reliant on voluntary association. Is this coincidence? Has the expansion of the Federal Government lead to the decline in voluntary association?

Political organization premised on rent-seeking is not a positive development for democracy.  More interest group lobbying is not a solution to a government and governing system that is already thoroughly perverted by the incentives they exploit.

Further, I think people have a dangerous tendency to idolize "democracy" and "populism" when it helps their political agenda. The Founding Fathers made a lot of too-often forgotten criticisms about the danger of a political system that is too responsive to public whims.

• Jane Hamsher just showed a political ad that had a jingle (sung by the Squirrel Nut Zippers).   The jingle was grating, annoying, somewhat silly.  I bet the immediate reaction to that by many people is “ugh, jingles suck.”  But – and here I refer back to stuff I learned during my decade or so in radio – jingles work.   In fact, the simpler and more grating they are, the better they can work.  Sure, we all hate ditties that get stuck in our head….but they get stuck in our head.  That helps a message resonate long afterward, even if only subconsciously.  

• The “Inside the Presidential Campaigns: What Worked, What Didn't” session is going on now.  Mindy Finn echoes Patrick Ruffini's earlier comment, saying the Rightosphere has been eclipsed because it has gotten complacent (for various reasons).  That will begin to change before too long, I think.  It will have to.  This social media battleground is far too important to avoid, and it will only grow more central to our political world.

  The problem, I think, is that the Right still wants to build the traditional behemoths - the political Pentagon that soak up massive resources and come with the typical limitations and perverse incentives of large bureaucracies.     Meanwhile, the Left is building for political guerilla warfare.   The Right has aircraft carriers, the Left has pirate ships.  

  Those Right’s behemoths are good at certain things, but there are many more things they just can’t do.  And they can’t be made to do them.