The Web and the political process

Eight years ago, the web was still somewhat in its infancy. It was a hodge-podge of pages with pictures and virtually no video. New news was still broken primarily on television and radio. In-depth reporting was still primarily the realm of print journalism such as newspapers and magazines. 2000 was the year my company moved from dial-up access to DSL. Most of the world was still using dial-up and marvelled at its ability to bring information into our homes and businesses.

In the political process it was more of a town meeting instead of a medium for prepared advertising. On the GeorgeWBush.com site, there was a bulletin board (sort of like the comment boxes seen today on many sites [this one included].) I put in my ten cents worth and it actually was read by someone significant in the campain. I am sure of that because my ten-cent quip was practically verbatim in a speech that put a dent into Vice-President Gore's definition of middle class. Governor Bush used two sentences of mine nearly directly.

A major part of Mr. Gore's platform was a tax credit to help the middle class to pay for college. My point as that a family of five had to make over $40,000 per year to see the first penny. Nearly a decade later, it boils down to more a question of who the middle class are as opposed to were the middle class going to get a tax credit. The bottom line is a family of five who makes $40,000 per year pays little or no federal income tax in the first place. A credit for tax liability when there is none results in no change in tax liability.

The point here is that eight years ago, there actually was access to the inner workings of campains by those of us on the internet. Today the sheer volume of people online makes it prohibitive. The internet has just become another media stream for the campains to use to spread their message. It serves them well, but the two way forum of the past is seemingly dead. Today (for me) just getting this blog read by ANYONE is a stretch.