Champion's, a typical sports bar in Austin, Texas, ran a curious
greeting on its scoreboard all weekend: "Welcome, Netroots!" The
pulsing light bulbs faced a giant convention center hosting Netroots
Nation, an annual conference for the Internet Left, which grew out of
volunteer brainstorming sessions on DailyKos over three years ago.
Then, web activists were undeniable outcasts in Democratic politics and
no bar outside of Berkeley could spell "netroots." Now, this net
movement has an open line to every player in the party; the
conference's speakers included Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, DLC head
Harold Ford, several Obama aides and an array of candidates, wonks,
operatives, writers and progressive stars, from Paul Krugman to Samantha Power to Wes Clark. (I also moderated a panel, and Nation
writers Chris Hayes and Jeremy Scahill spoke at the conference.) The
gathering's 2,000 paid attendees were drawn from bloggers, blog
commenters and even "lurkers" -- the silent majority of visitors who
scour online conversations without participating -- all focused on
electing Obama, stopping the war, restoring the Constitution and
calcifying the frail backbone of the Democratic Congress.
In a lively plenary session called "Ask The Speaker,"
organizers pressed Nancy Pelosi with questions that activists had
written and selected through an online community portal. It was
basically a cross between a town hall and a Digg vote. The top
questions, which drew hundreds of votes each, were about impeachment,
subpoenas for Bush Administration officials, campaign finance reform
and abstinence education, followed by several queries on restoring the rule of law.
Pelosi seemed defensive most of the time. She blamed seventeen
Democratic Senators for backing the President's surveillance
bill--which the netroots strongly opposed--and repeatedly offered the
weak riposte that soon Bush's term would be over. Despite sharp policy
differences, however, the audience was largely warm and respectful.
Some attendees held up copies of the Constitution in protest, and a few
costumed, antiwar activists from Code Pink briefly disrupted her remarks. Then Pelosi's interview was mercifully truncated by Al Gore, who made a surprise appearance that wowed the conference and drew several standing ovations. (Here's my post.)
Attendees seemed very enthusiastic about Obama, who recently responded to widespread criticism within the movement for backing the FISA bill. For the conference, he recorded a special YouTube address,
stressing his foreign policy differences with John McCain, appealing to
activists for support, and reiterating his commitment to an open
dialogue. "We've had some disagreements in the past," he says in the
six-minute video, seated in front of an American flag and a royal blue
curtain. "I promise to continue to listen to your concerns, take them
seriously, and discuss them respectfully -- and work to earn your
ongoing support."
After discussing his Iraq policy, Obama's video heralded the power of
grassroots organizing. "While I can't be there with you in person, I
want to thank you all for your hard work and sacrifices so far," he
told attendees, linking his campaign to the Dean/netroots fifty-state
strategy. And Obama touted the way his campaign has empowered
"supporters to self-organize" through a social network portal, MyBo,
which recently hosted the surveillance bill protests.
The site has generated over 1 million volunteers, 70,000 offline events
and--as Obama wryly noted--"formed thousands of grassroots advocacy
groups, including one you might have heard about recently." One of the
campaign aides who oversees MyBo, Facebook co-founder and whiz kid
Chris Hughes, also conducted a workshop at the conference.
Reflecting on the conference, Obama spokesperson Hari Sevugan told The Nation
that the "netroots community is an important voice in our public
discourse." An effective "grassroots movement" will not only help
victory in November, he added, but also "help keep people involved
after the election." At this point, the alliance between Obama and the
netroots is strong, though not fawning in either direction; and open,
as both sides are transparent in their expectations and
disappointments.
That reality is obscured, however, by some narratives in the traditional press. Coverage of this weekend's conference often carried an edge. The New York Times reviewedObama's clashes with bloggers and declared that "the netroots can be reflexively confrontational and demand ideological purity." The Washington Post opted for an oddly competitive analysis: "The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has less need to court this crowd, having proven himself a better organizer than they--and on a far grander scale." And Time drew an ominous scene for Pelosi's visit:
Criticism of her appearance in the blogosphere had been so high in the
lead up to the event that [a moderator] preceded her introduction of
the Speaker with a warning against any agitation. It can get pretty
hostile at Netroots Nation. Last year, Hillary Clinton nearly backed
off from attending the conference; after a small uproar from the
blogger community, she finally showed up but the Q&A session she
headlined was met with boos. For Pelosi, the potential for trouble at
her Q&A session at the Austin Convention Center was everywhere....
Actually, Clinton was not met with any boos at her session last year. As I wrote
at the time: "Clinton's breakout session drew repeated applause and no
boos. (She was booed lightly during the larger candidate forum.)" And
the moderator's reference to "agitation" was not addressing "criticism
of [Pelosi's] appearance in the blogopshere," which actually welcomed
the visit, but the Code Pink members, who are known for protesting from
city halls to congressional hearings.
These may sound like relatively minor distortions, but they also
reflect a resilient mischaracterization of the netroots as an angry,
radical and combustible bunch. It's a rather silly gloss for a
well-educated, text and technology-based activist corps that wields influence via web fundraising, e-mail lobbying, social networking and, yes, traditional gatherings offline.
Related Video: For more media coverage the netroots, here's a recent exchange I had with CNN's Amy Holmes about whether defending the Constitution is a liberal act, followed by Obama's Netroots Nation video.