The Obama Disconnect: What Happens When Myth Meets Reality

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

TechPresident - By Micah L. Sifry - Jan. 01 (Opinion) - The truth is that Obama was never nearly as free of dependence on big money donors as the reporting suggested, nor was his movement as bottom-up or people-centric as his marketing implied. And this is the big story of 2009, if you ask me, the meta-story of what did, and didn't happen, in the first year of Obama's administration. The people who voted for him weren't organized in any kind of new or powerful way, and the special interests--banks, energy companies, health interests, car-makers, the military-industrial complex--sat first at the table and wrote the menu. Myth met reality, and came up wanting.

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Political Implications of the Cognitive Surplus

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

TechPresident - By Luigi Montanez - May. 08 (Opinion) - In 2003, Howard Dean supporters who rallied around the candidate's fierce opposition to the Iraq War used their Cognitive Surplus to organize themselves on Meetup.com, create (along with Clark supporters) the Netroots, and donate an unprecedented amount of dollars and volunteer hours. Between 2004 and 2006, many of those supporters turned to local politics, helping run the campaigns of down-ballot candidates, and in some cases, running for office themselves. And of course in 2007 and 2008, the campaigns of Barack Obama on the left and Ron Paul on the right have harnessed an untapped Cognitive Surplus to awaken the political consciousness of huge swaths of the citizenry.

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The Obama Disconnect: What Happens When Myth Meets Reality

Political Implications of the Cognitive Surplus