I'm Not in Vegas and I'm Not Bitter

I try to read the dispatches from Kosapalooza--really I do--but I just can't get interested. I suppose it sounds like it could be fun...sort of. Certainly they have some people who are well worth traveling to see (Wesley Clark, Nancy Pelosi) along with the ones who aren't. Still, I have the distinct impression that if I were there it would take every bit of strength I have to keep from running screaming from the convention.

The problem is that people seem to be taking themselves rather too seriously. None of the reports from Kosamageddon are particularly amusing, you see. (Sure, there's Tbogg--always reliable--but when you get down to it, he's snarking on the right-wing responses to Kosiverse, not reporting anything intrinsically funny from it.) If it isn't funny, I want no part of it.

Sure, it's lovely that lots of serious people are paying attention to bloggers, yadda yadda yadda. Whatever. This interweb thingy has tremendous potential as a political tool, but a) it doesn't change some very sticky very unpleasant realities on the ground (contra the blog triumphalists), and b) the right can use it too and they did it more effectively sooner. (The apparently waning influence of the right blogosphere, and waxing of the left, is less a consequence of superior effectiveness by one side than of events (resulting from the catastrophic incompetence of Bush) far beyond the control of either.)

From my perspective, this is just another wave of grassroots organizing--one more of the dozens I've seen in my 137 years on this planet. All have shared the belief that this time was different, that they were the people who would change everything. A few have been effective (the civil rights movement); the overwhelming majority have not. One thing that distinguishes this one is the speed with which it has evolved to a state of internal division and bitter recrimination. I suppose that's something to be proud of.

The truth is, I'm just not convinced of the inherent superiority of grassroots politics. Yes, it has achieved some tremendous things. So has insider politics (the New Deal; the Great Society). A lot of bloggers are launching very astute critiques of a far too timid Democratic leadership. A lot of bloggers are urging the Democrats to one course or another that in the real world would be catastrophic folly. On some issues the Democratic leadership would do well to listen to the blogosphere, and on others I dearly hope they have the good sense to ignore us. The fact that the political insiders are making a lot of mistakes does not mean that political outsiders are necessarily right.

Now, I freely admit that my opinion is probably tainted by the fact that I am by nature not a joiner. Still, I think it has the weight of long years of careful observation behind it. El Mundo del Kos could well a force for good (and the best chance of that lies in the 'grassroots' learning as much from the insiders as vice-versa) or it could reinforce the echo-chamber effect that is the worst aspect of the political blogosphere (left and right), but either way I just can't see it as a turning point in American politics. I've lived through far too many of those, you see.

[That's all, folks]