techPresident - Social Networks: 1 Political Machine: 0 [Update] - Comments

Does All P local = All P Social?

richardbelldc — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 12:44:12 -0500

How much difference is there between saying "all politics are local" and "all politics are social"?

Tip O'Neill, former Speaker of the House, is credited with "all politics are local." And in the Cambridge neighborhoods where O'Neill learned politics, local meant social. In a sense, what "machine politics" or "big city boss politics" was all about was the building and maintenance of political machines that were embedded in neighborhood-based social networks.

Political reformers have always attacked urban political machines for the types of corruption that almost inevitably accompanies such political arrangements. But there's no question that these machines were a very powerful form of locally-based social networks, anchored in families and long personal associations.

The disappearance of classical machine politics partially reflects the atomization and alienation of the country as a whole. In the absence of machine politics, the reliance on polls and phone banks makes perfect sense, even though it is, as Valdis so aptly puts it, a "brute force" method.

The Republican dominance of national politics from Reagan onward was founded on the religious right voting block, which represented a social network which progressives were unable to penetrate. And at the same time, Republicans were systematically destroying the social network of labor unions, the networks that had been so important to the Democratic Party.

I agree with Valdis that Huckabee's surge involved tapping into existing networks. When you don't have to pay for the cost of creating the network in the first place, then you can run very low cost political campaigns that have a shot at winning.

And as Ron Paul has shown, you can use the net to mobilize a virtual social network to raise very large amounts of money in a very short time. Unlike Huckabee however, Paul's supporters, while fervent, appear to be thinly spread geographically, making the task of converting their online support into boots on the ground a daunting one.

This is a great and

Zephyr Teachout — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 10:38:12 -0500

This is a great and important blog post.

I'd add to it just a little; Huckabee not only tapped into those social networks, but actively pursued existing social networks in the blogosphere, and thanked the hundreds of bloggers who have been working with him on the night before Iowa. His networked approach, then, was not limited to the traditional networks, but applied more broadly.

Obama also used the internet to strengthen and create offline communities, by enabling thousands (not hundreds, thousands) of offline social events in the months before the caucuses, with just a few people at each one.

In other words, both of them relied heavily on the internet, but not qua internet.

Inkling of opportunity?

gibson_stevens — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:22:49 -0500

This is going to be interesting. Assuming these trends continue, and actually show real success (i.e. Obama gets the nomination, Huckabee sticks around longer, etc.), the politicos may actually realize the value of web strategy, and that it goes well beyond a nice website.

Given that we are still 10 months away from election day, hundreds of statewide, Congressional and local campaigns across the country are going to realize this need and seek talent. Might this be the time for the web strategist to rise to the level of the media strategist?

More of my musings...

Or is location more important?

Freedomfighter — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 16:11:28 -0500

Social networks always play strong in a caucus which results in skewed outcomes. Young voters were overrepresented as was anyone connected to a church, union or other association. Rudy, who is socially liberal and Mitt who flipped flopped on social issues, gave challengers a wide opening. With Huckabee adding the fair tax issue, the resistance to him gave away. However, all the results may still boil down to region. Obama finished first in the Democratic race, but his home state of Illinois is next door. All competitors were further away. Huckabee of Arkansas finished first in the Republican race because his state is closer than the rest of the Republicans. If you want to find differences, try to figure out how Thompson beat out McCain and how Ron Paul got 10 percent of the vote.

Social Networks: 1 Political Machine: 0 [Update]

Valdis Krebs — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 14:26:49 -0500

The first U.S. presidential primary of 2008 is over and it was full of surprises. After the first inning, we have an unexpected lead, thanks to Mike Huckabee connecting to intact networks that had a long history together, while Mitt Romney connected to individual voters -- one at a time. We have heard that "all politics are local", now we also find out that "all politics are social".