Rob: "Do you see other ways that things will change, in terms of the way that grass roots
efforts are involved or the way new candidates are determined?"-
Katrina: "Absolutely, I see it already. I think Donna Edwards, who's the new congressperson from Maryland, was very much involved, again, the kind of Dean 3.0, the use of the internet, not just to raise money, which of course, is a factor, and though I am all for public financing, I do think the internet democratizes fundraising to a point. But I think you are also seeing the internet, and social networking, which Obama's campaign and Donna Edwards used effectively to engage voters, primarily younger, but the future of the party, BTW, here's another thought- this race has, as you well know, energized, an unprecedented registration, a new engagement. If Hillary Clinton is the nominee, it's not clear to me what happens to our younger generation, which, for the most part, has been brought into this presidential election through Obama's candidacy.
There's a potential that you see a realignment of the Democratic Party as a major force in our political landscape if those young people join the party now, progressives who will be part of it for decades to come. If they are alienated, they may certainly vote for Hillary Clinton but they are not necessarily as engaged in the party building as they might be. One reason the nation has supported Barack Obama is his commitment speaks to it of understanding that change comes from below. And that investment that his campaign has made in mobilizing grasssroots organizing is a different concept of elections that has the possibility of fusing movements and elections, which in my view leads to civilizing changes. The great advances have come when the Democratic party has been pushed, is receptive to being pushed by movements outside."-
Rob: "Civilization, that's a big concept."-
Katrina: "Well, no, civilizing advances. If you think about the Civil rights movement, civil rights is a civilizing advance, which took a civil rights movement, allied with an administration-- Johnson-- open to it because of the times, the facts on the ground and the pressure. I personally think that neither Hillary Clinton nor Obama got that right. I mean she didn't phrase it right when she said that Johnson gets more credit because you need Martin Luther king and the movement behind King as well as Johnson to push through changes that do contribute to the civilizing changes of our country.
Rob: "Now you've mentioned social networking. Is there any particular aspect of it? We're talking technology here. So, technology will have a role in having driven the change in the leadership of the Democratic Party?"-
Katrina: "Absolutely. I think partly, the tech, the social networking, that is not just technology, it's the ability to communicate with like-minded people or to engage others and to communicate ideas and views. That may be too highfalutin', it may be more just, you, know, "hey, here's what I'm thinking." But it is the ability to use that networking, in new ways, that didn't exist, by the way, in Dean's time. It wasn't at the level that it is now.
"Technology alone is cold and soulless. But when it is aligned and alive with the energy of a campaign that is speaking to millions of people I think it's valuable and cubing all that energy and that's what we're seeing, And I think also critical, btw, Rob is not just the online stuff, it's the ability to mesh online with off line. Which I think the Obama campaign has not really well. I'm talking about organizing, not just fundraising.
Rob: "They've done amazingly. The way they pull together when people sign up, empower them and enabling them to connect is incredible. How do you think the DLC fits in?"-
Katrina: "I think they became irrelevant around 2006. I think some of that speaks to the progressives in the Democratic party, not necessarily taking back the party, because there's still much work to be done, but the progressive wing of the Democratic party, or what Paul Wellstone called "the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party" drove issues into 2006, winning issues, economic populism, ending the war-- into this campaign too. This race is being run on an issue terrain that was not the case in 2004-- again, ending the war, Universal health care, though I'd say it needs to go beyond what we're discussing, Trade, fair trade, a new look at the way trade has hurt main street and benefited Wall Street, the environment-- new thinking about that, new thinking about a more progressive economic agenda. I think those issues have been driven in by a wing of the party that, for a long time, wasn't getting heard because the DLC was more dominant. But even people like Al From, who was head of the DLC, pretty quiet these days are synch with what's happening. On the security front, beyond ending the war in Iraq, I also think there is more sanity about the need for a different approach to fighting the, quote, war on terror, a more multilateral approach, a more full dimensional approach than just military might."-
Rob: "How do you think it would affect this congress-- this change. Do you think there will be any change in congress itself?"-
Katrina: "I think the congress looks good. I think you're going to see five, six seven seats senate seats picked up by democrats. I want to say 20 something or more in the house. I think any progressive minded, enlightened president-- Barack or Hillary-- is going to need a strong congress. And I think you're already seeing it. You saw 2006, a whole new crop of candidates elected who are more progressive when it comes to economics and who are calling for a sane end to this war. Jim Webb is one. You know, in the senate you have some of the most progressive populists in decades. You have Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown, Jim Webb, John Tester of Montana and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. These are kitchen table populists, and they understand, not all of them, but certainly Bernie and Sherrod Brown understand the importance of connecting with movements in the way Paul Wellstone did."-
* * *
At a symposium organized by the New Democrat Network on new internet approaches to politics, I asked bottom internet pioneer and former Campaign manager for Howard Dean and John Edwards, Joe Trippi, "I'm curious, you talk about Top down, Bottom up politics for campaigns, but what about the Democratic leadership. How will it change?"
Trippi: "It's changing. You know, John Tester wasn't some committee's guy in DC. They wanted Morrison, the state auditor. They pretty much hand picked Morrison as the senate candidate in 2006. But Jerome Armstrong and a bunch of other people went out to interview this guy named John Tester and fell in love with him, started talking about him all over the blogs and started generating small donations to him, got him a bit of notoriety and his campaign took off. He defeated Morrison in the primary and is now the US Senator from Montana.
"And that happened, like 15 times, on the house side. John Hall, the race I did in New York 19, I don't remember who our Democratic primary opponent was, but they were the DCCC's candidate. They didn't think that Hall... they probably thought that he was too liberal or something... I don't know what they thought. But they didn't go with him. And he beat Sue (Kelly a six term Republican incumbent.)
efforts are involved or the way new candidates are determined?"-
Katrina: "Absolutely, I see it already. I think Donna Edwards, who's the new congressperson from Maryland, was very much involved, again, the kind of Dean 3.0, the use of the internet, not just to raise money, which of course, is a factor, and though I am all for public financing, I do think the internet democratizes fundraising to a point. But I think you are also seeing the internet, and social networking, which Obama's campaign and Donna Edwards used effectively to engage voters, primarily younger, but the future of the party, BTW, here's another thought- this race has, as you well know, energized, an unprecedented registration, a new engagement. If Hillary Clinton is the nominee, it's not clear to me what happens to our younger generation, which, for the most part, has been brought into this presidential election through Obama's candidacy.
There's a potential that you see a realignment of the Democratic Party as a major force in our political landscape if those young people join the party now, progressives who will be part of it for decades to come. If they are alienated, they may certainly vote for Hillary Clinton but they are not necessarily as engaged in the party building as they might be. One reason the nation has supported Barack Obama is his commitment speaks to it of understanding that change comes from below. And that investment that his campaign has made in mobilizing grasssroots organizing is a different concept of elections that has the possibility of fusing movements and elections, which in my view leads to civilizing changes. The great advances have come when the Democratic party has been pushed, is receptive to being pushed by movements outside."-
Rob: "Civilization, that's a big concept."-
Rob: "Now you've mentioned social networking. Is there any particular aspect of it? We're talking technology here. So, technology will have a role in having driven the change in the leadership of the Democratic Party?"-
Katrina: "Absolutely. I think partly, the tech, the social networking, that is not just technology, it's the ability to communicate with like-minded people or to engage others and to communicate ideas and views. That may be too highfalutin', it may be more just, you, know, "hey, here's what I'm thinking." But it is the ability to use that networking, in new ways, that didn't exist, by the way, in Dean's time. It wasn't at the level that it is now.
"Technology alone is cold and soulless. But when it is aligned and alive with the energy of a campaign that is speaking to millions of people I think it's valuable and cubing all that energy and that's what we're seeing, And I think also critical, btw, Rob is not just the online stuff, it's the ability to mesh online with off line. Which I think the Obama campaign has not really well. I'm talking about organizing, not just fundraising.
Rob: "They've done amazingly. The way they pull together when people sign up, empower them and enabling them to connect is incredible. How do you think the DLC fits in?"-
Katrina: "I think they became irrelevant around 2006. I think some of that speaks to the progressives in the Democratic party, not necessarily taking back the party, because there's still much work to be done, but the progressive wing of the Democratic party, or what Paul Wellstone called "the Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party" drove issues into 2006, winning issues, economic populism, ending the war-- into this campaign too. This race is being run on an issue terrain that was not the case in 2004-- again, ending the war, Universal health care, though I'd say it needs to go beyond what we're discussing, Trade, fair trade, a new look at the way trade has hurt main street and benefited Wall Street, the environment-- new thinking about that, new thinking about a more progressive economic agenda. I think those issues have been driven in by a wing of the party that, for a long time, wasn't getting heard because the DLC was more dominant. But even people like Al From, who was head of the DLC, pretty quiet these days are synch with what's happening. On the security front, beyond ending the war in Iraq, I also think there is more sanity about the need for a different approach to fighting the, quote, war on terror, a more multilateral approach, a more full dimensional approach than just military might."-
Rob: "How do you think it would affect this congress-- this change. Do you think there will be any change in congress itself?"-
Katrina: "I think the congress looks good. I think you're going to see five, six seven seats senate seats picked up by democrats. I want to say 20 something or more in the house. I think any progressive minded, enlightened president-- Barack or Hillary-- is going to need a strong congress. And I think you're already seeing it. You saw 2006, a whole new crop of candidates elected who are more progressive when it comes to economics and who are calling for a sane end to this war. Jim Webb is one. You know, in the senate you have some of the most progressive populists in decades. You have Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown, Jim Webb, John Tester of Montana and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. These are kitchen table populists, and they understand, not all of them, but certainly Bernie and Sherrod Brown understand the importance of connecting with movements in the way Paul Wellstone did."-
* * *
At a symposium organized by the New Democrat Network on new internet approaches to politics, I asked bottom internet pioneer and former Campaign manager for Howard Dean and John Edwards, Joe Trippi, "I'm curious, you talk about Top down, Bottom up politics for campaigns, but what about the Democratic leadership. How will it change?"
Trippi: "It's changing. You know, John Tester wasn't some committee's guy in DC. They wanted Morrison, the state auditor. They pretty much hand picked Morrison as the senate candidate in 2006. But Jerome Armstrong and a bunch of other people went out to interview this guy named John Tester and fell in love with him, started talking about him all over the blogs and started generating small donations to him, got him a bit of notoriety and his campaign took off. He defeated Morrison in the primary and is now the US Senator from Montana.
"And that happened, like 15 times, on the house side. John Hall, the race I did in New York 19, I don't remember who our Democratic primary opponent was, but they were the DCCC's candidate. They didn't think that Hall... they probably thought that he was too liberal or something... I don't know what they thought. But they didn't go with him. And he beat Sue (Kelly a six term Republican incumbent.)
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