Blog this and blog that
Blog it all and blog a blogging brat
We don’t want a campaign that looks just like that
I don’t want a campaign that looks just like that

I am not a self-hating blogger, though I am a fan of Captain Kirk and the Sex Pistols. Personally, I think blogs are swell. I know bloggers. Bloggers are friends of mine. But online campaigns are not just about bloggers. However, after reading so much mainstream press coverage about Politics 2.0 lately (for example, in Mother Jones this month), one might conclude that the sun rises and sets only on blogs and the bloggers that write them. There is so much more to online campaigning that we do ourselves a great disservice when we narrow our focus too much on blogs.

I have often called blogs the hammer of our generation. Have you heard of the hammer theory? You know, the one that goes, “Give a child a hammer and suddenly everything looks like a nail.” Hammers are very useful tools, but not if you have to stitch together two pieces of fabric, not if you have to dig a hole, and not if you have to write a letter. A hammer has a range of uses, but it is hardly the only tool in your belt.

Another thing I often say is, “Tools are not strategy.” Blogs are tools. And bloggers are the craftsmen wielding this tool. And many bloggers, like Kos, Reynolds, Marshall, Delany, and many others wield their tool very well. They make a significant impact on the political arena. They have helped to further democratize politics by providing more voices and sources in a world where the mainstream media has become an oligopoly, representing a corporate perspective more than the people’s perspective. Democracy thrives of diverse voices deliberating the issues of the day and blogs have clearly added voices.

While blogs have helped to usher in a new era of enhance citizen engagement, they have neither done it alone nor do they represent the ultimate expression of this new era. Opportunities for citizens to engage in political discourse have existed online since the very beginning of the internet, on USENET, in IRC, via LISTSERVs, on many websites offering discussion forums, grassroots advocacy software for emailing policymakers, and other channels. And the new social media and social network sites like YouTube, Flickr, Digg, Facebook, MySpace, Care2, Change.org, and Townhall provide ever more opportunities for citizens to learn about the issues, engage in discussions, take action, and become part of civic-minded communities.

John Locke would be delighted. The new political landscape offers so many ways to facilitate rational discourse for finding solutions to the problems of the day. In the long-run, this can only be good for democracy, good for political campaigns, and good for the people.

So while it is true that blogs can be a difference-maker in campaigns, both positive and negative, the other aspects of Politics 2.0 are at least as important. As Micah Sifry and Andrew Rasiej spelled out in their Politico article the web is playing an enormous role in all aspects of politics, including fundraising, volunteer organizing, message dissemination, and voter engagement through social networks and social media.

All in all, Politics 2.0 is very exciting. And while blogs play a key role in this new landscape, they are like one village in a vast world where networked technology is affecting how we do all things in politics.