Due to blahging, commenting and reading blahgz by others and comments by others, I’ve felt closer to the ‘action’ in this election and more a part of the process than any other political event in my life.
I guess its like that for all of us ‘citizens’ who used to always just read the paper and watch newscasts and the politicians and pundits and reporters were the ‘inside’ people and we’d only read about what was going on later maybe, filtered through a book or magazine article.
Now not only are we in on the ‘inside dope’, but more ‘regular citizens’ are actually part of the process and have REAL effect on the election, by magnifying the SBVT, Rathergate, in fact every one day wonder on the campaign trail was minutely examined and critiqued by all the political junkies on both sides of the blogs, the bloggers and the reader/commenters.
Maybe, finally, citizens are not only getting more involved in the process, but by the more open exchange of info and the free-er, more direct and more effective use of money via 527’s the long-hoped for involvement in the political process by the American public is becoming a reality.
Maybe that had something to do with less apathy toward the election, greater attention paid by more casual political followers, and the greater voter turn-out?
Or maybe this will pale too after a while when the novelty wears off and we’ll be back to the status quo. I hope not if everyday joes can have a direct influence on important events. Maybe we’re all players in history now and maybe more of us will get that promised 15 minutes of fame ala Buckhead, BlogsforBush and Bill Barnett.