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I first saw the term "net roots" around the 1998 elections. At that time it didn't have much meaning but in the following years the term began to describe a phenomenon. Normal, intelligent Americans communicating with each other and discussing by typing national social and political news then taking coordinated action to make sure their voice was heard. Their politics were most certainly liberal, left of center, Democratic Party leaning. The words typed made you think "hey, that's the way I feel".
In the 2000 election, money was made. Message boards became mainstream, accepted and profitable. The business model was simple. Provide an open forum, easily accessible where people could spout off and feel like they made a difference. Or at least SOMEBODY was listening to them. Kind of a cross between a popular bar and a newspaper editorial page. But even better because you didn't have to think about the DWI and you knew your letter would get printed.
By the 2004 election, message boards were like TV in the 70's. Or a good hooker. Entertaining, inexpensive and you never felt used after a good 2 hour session. Politics were especially popular and candidates found they could raise large amounts of money from hundreds of small donations. Democratic Party candidates recognized this first though there were Republican leaning boards. And it made a difference.
The internet was as mainstream as television and just as addictive. Hits to the board became in the thousands then the millions. And just like television the best writers were on the Democratic Party leaning sites. Du, Kos, Mydd were all easily memorable and fun. Ideas were exchanged and the term viral came to describe how quickly and effectively these ideas spread. Everyone around the world needs the same basic things - think Craigslist and the message boards filled a need for Democratic Americans to be heard. And there are a lot of those. Tens of millions and that's a nice advertising and customer base. No doubt, the message boards were effective to Democratic efforts during the 2002 to 2007 cycles. Conservative and Republican leaning message sites spread propaganda but were no where near as effective as left leaning sites.
2008 that clear clean water we used to swim in has become polluted. Toxic invectives are spewed daily and there is no exchange of ideas. Is it popularity, have the hits gone up that much? Or is it a concentrated effort to disrupt the democratic exchange? The rhetoric is that seen on the GOP sites, complete with the anger, misspelling and grammatical errors. Innuendo replaces fact if there is a video and judgment is made quickly. Attack instead of promote, label instead of define. Names are easy to change so if your banned or need to escape and if these commie bastards can't take a joke. Well, you get the idea. This is how I've always seen the GOP work.
Next up: Chat rooms
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