Blogger Matt Stoller asserted a “rootsgap” in his farewell post at OpenLeft last week. He co-founded the site last year (he is off to work on the Hill). “A rootsgap occurs when a leadership is dramatically out of step with its base or the public at large,” he wrote. He added:
While there are great people around our leaders, what is striking is how politicians are considered to be ‘over there’ making decisions, and activist movement people are considered to be outsiders and reactive to these decisions. This doesn’t make sense; cooperation can benefit everyone involved.
I thought immediately of the line Valerie Jarrett drew in her email yesterday about the Citizen’s Briefing Book between the “experts and advisors” who talk to the President-elect and the ‘roots. And I suspect the Obama administration is not even who Stoller has in mind.
Are our leaders out of touch with the ‘roots? And if they are, is that just wise politics — maybe we are not as powerful as we think! heaven forbid! — or is it a serious mistake by leaders unwilling, or unable, to recognize a fundamental shift in U.S. politics wrought by a new communications medium at least as powerful as radio and television.
Personally, I think Obama would not be President-elect right now without the Internet. He never could have raised enough money from small donors using direct mail, among other things. And I suggest one reason the Republican position has weakened in the past decade (MoveOn was started in 1998 and DailyKos in 2002, just as a reminder) is because they have used the Internet less effectively — rootsgap, such as it may be, notwithstanding — than Democrats. Your thoughts on all of this?
kbusch says
I think it’s been obvious for a while from polling that Democratic leaders are out of touch with the roots. Democrats don’t give Congress high marks. That’s why Congressional approval ratings have trended lower than those of the worst President ever.
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p>Take the impeachment thing.
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p>Lots of grass roots Democrats think that Bush’s lying us into a war was impeachable. Very few Democratic Congressional leaders wanted to go there. Now, one might argue the merits or demerits of impeaching #43. Possibly it would have been unwise, but it was what the roots would have wanted to see.
mcrd says
Perahps it’s neither. The Massachusetts legislature doesn’t care a whit what 70% of the Massachusetts want. Either does Washington care what the citezens of this country want. On the other hand–our laws are now meaningless. Certain laws are now only applicable to certain people. Just ask Timothy Geithner.
dcsohl says
He paid the back-taxes, with the appropriate penalties.
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p>Now, the question arises whether he is suitable for the job at hand, and I’m not going into that here. But as far as the law is concerned, Geithner is not above it, and he’s paid the price. I’m not sure what else you want. The law’s been followed, end of story.
john-beresford-tipton says
I’m sure Mr.Geithner is no worse than the millions that cheat on their taxes each year. (Who was is who said, “Only the little people pay taxes?”)
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p>He certainly is no worse than the Republicans. What did Scooter get away with!? We have to understand that these people travel in circles where the rules are different. Now it’s time for the Democrats to fly in the higher circles.
mcrd says
has it ever crossed your mind that Republicans, conservatives, “the christian right” , et al make use of the internet very liitle or perhaps not at all? This for many reasons. Perhaps some being that they have jobs, or several jobs that does not afford them the opportunity to “log on.” Perhaps their type of employment is not conducive to looking at a computer screen or that they are busy doing their jobs (if they do have a computer) rather than surfing the net. I mean—these are all distinct possibilities.
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p>The content of what people view on the net is another factor. People with intellectual curiosity perhaps are more inclined to use the internet.People who consider themselves “enlightened” perhaps view only websites that pander to their tunnel vision.
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p>The disconnect between the “leaders and grassroots? The leaders (so called) could care less what the great unwashed think or want. The “leaders” care about only one thing: being reelected. Whatever they can do to further that end is paramount. The big $$$ are the folks who pay for legislation and elections. The big $$$ underwrite the brainwashing of the idiot electorate. American politics since John Kennedy has proven one thing—Our elections are bought and sold just like merchandise on a counter top.
Barack Obama raised four times as much money as McCain. The candidate with the most money wins–everything else is irrelevant.
sethjp says
has it ever crossed your mind that Republicans, conservatives, “the christian right” , et al make use of the internet very liitle or perhaps not at all? This for many reasons. Perhaps some being that they are ignorant jackasses or inbred mouth-breathers without the faculties necessary to “log on.” Perhaps they’re simply self centered cranks or too busy telling other people how to run their lives to take interest in engaging in a community discussion. I mean—these are all distinct possibilities.
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p>Note, I am in no way claiming that any of the above is true, much in the way that I’m sure you aren’t claiming that Republicans are the only ones with a decent sense of work ethic. I’m just pointing out possibilities for the community to consider. No harm in that, right?
joets says
Who goes to school full time and works, I can provide evidence that your above claims are not accurate.
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p>I would be more quick to point out that cultural differences between your rank and file conservative and liberal — this is more likely to lead you to the answer you are searching for. Organizations grow around the technology they are most comfortable with, and as it happens, young people (the computer generation) are more apt to use such tools in their political ventures, whereas the older folks were more into the door-to-door grassroots. What you saw in this election was really the first of its kind for Democrats in my lifetime.
johnd says
The populace has endured politicians we disdain many times. We often hear the polar comments from pols on one day saying they are doing “whatever” they are doing because their voters are telling them to… while the next issue they will vote against their constituents wishes claiming that their job goes beyond simply echoing their people wants (or that they could be replaced by citizens voting on every issue). The bottom line is they do whatever they want to do with the only regard to voters being at reelection time. Was the recent reelection of Sal an example of our leaders not being in touch with the public?
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p>And why wouldn’t they. Congress’s approval rating has been in the teens for sometime, even lower than George Bush’s approval ratings. The recent bailout bill was NOT supported by the majority of Americans and yet our politicians voted for it. Now they must face their constituents for not listening and the bailout NOT working ($700B). And yet Congress will get reelected overwhelmingly.
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p>The scary thing to me is I agree with technology and communications being the key to Obama’s victory and other future political campaigns. The scary aspect is with the MSM being so heavily biased for liberals and Democrats, it will take a huge effort for Conservatives to get attention and “touch” the masses (this closing the gap). I have posted many times on this site for consistency in all of our processes and not changing rules/tenants for “our guy”. However, when I hear of journalists(?) supporting a person when they should be reporting the facts, MSM critics of past Inauguration costs of $40M now happily supporting $100M costs, cabinet candidate issues which stopped others in their tracks now being ignored… I realize that equality, at least along ideologic tracks, will happen. Rootsgap is a huge problem for the GOP and the MSM will NOT be delivering the unbiased truth for as long as I can see. This is a challenge.
seascraper says
The major cleft is the mercantilist policies of big-business Democratic donors which depress the wages of the average Democratic voter, especially high taxes and anti-growth monetary policy at the Fed.
ryepower12 says
to krugman’s (and many others) sage thoughts on how nat’l democrats and the media keep rewarding people who were wrong on the issues that matter, like Iraq, while still people who were right about it are still kept down.
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p>They’re just out of touch. Don’t understand who the roots are – their constituents. Too many of them think we’re a bunch of whackos with keyboards, when in reality we’re their neighbors and the people who have been voting for them year in and year out. They need to be responsive to us, or learn the hard way. I’d love to see Reid challenged in a primary. He’s so woefully unpopular in Nevada that it may be the only way we could save that seat, anyway. Bottom line (and this is a common theme from me lately): the Democratic party needs to be a little scared of the progressive movement, so it’s willing to act on us. Right now, the only people they’ve been scared of has been a bunch of fringe conservatives who will never, ever, in a million years, vote for us anyway.
bob-neer says
Go for it!