Disintermediation and Politics

code_rage writes "Everett Ehrlich (capsule biography) writes an article in the Washington Post that examines Howard Dean's effective use of the internet to create a political organization. He says that Dean has created a 'virtual' party that has taken over the only remaining asset of value, the brand name of the Democratic party. His analysis refers to the theory of Nobel-winning economist Ronald Coase: that the size of an organization is determined by the cost of gathering information. Ehrlich's article makes some predictions about the effect that Dean's strategy will have on the political system." In a related story, there's an mp3 interview with Dick Morris, along with a couple of (appropriately) blog posts about it.

Mod parent down: off topic!

[HyperLemur]

This is a discussion about Dean, not Kerry!

Re:Too much Howard Dean on /.

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe that can change the name to SlashDean.org.

Title should have been...

[XaosTX]

Disintermediation and Disestablishmentarianism

Of course, I just like BIG words. ;-)

I belong to no organized political party

[FearUncertaintyDoubt]

...I'm a Democrat

The politcal climate is changing.Thank you Mr.Bush

[Adolph_Hitler]

We should all thank Mr. George W Bush for starting the internet political revolution. We should also thank the RIAA, MPAA, and websites such as slashdot. If any of you would like to see an interesting new political site following the Dean method to success, theres a new pro open source anti RIAA site called http://www.clickthevote.org/ [clickthevote.org] With enough money from donations they plan to actually hire lobbyists. They also keep a list of politicians who support P2P and Open source vs those who dont so the voter can decide who to vote for.

Re:The end of the (non-)religious right?

[operagost]

torch-waving asshats of the American Taliban

You just brought new meaning to the word "flamebait".

Re:Title should have been...

[Anonymous Coward]

As an antidisestablishmentarian, I protest your choice of titles.

Re:Side stepping.

[SlideGuitar]

...so hard to keep track...

Republicans supporting Dean because they want him to beat Bush.

Republicans supporting Dean because they are sure Bush can beat him. (Karl Rove et al)

Democrats supporting Dean because they want him to win.

Democrats supporting Dean because they want him to lose. (ie. "Gore backs Dean so he can lose, and prepare the ground for a Gore comeback in 2008".... )

Not to mention Democrats and Republicans opposing Dean so that he will lose.... and probably so that he will win too!

I kind of hope Dean wins just because he might be a decent President.

---

The secret of American politics is to advocate radical ideas in ways that seem quite sensible and moderate to the vast dumb middle.

Bush has done it, presenting radical religion as "normal" politics.

I hope that Dean manages to advocate the radical idea of getting corporations out of government and restoring democracy, and that he does it in a way that leaves most Americans thinking that this radical step is just a fine and reasonable centrist idea.