A story in the Phila. Inquirer about Web logs and their use by political candidates.
Yet, today, thanks largely to the Howard Dean phenomenon and other Web-driven developments, the Internet has become such a potent force in national politics that its most vocal boosters are heralding a brave new world of civic engagement, a new era of grassroots Jeffersonian democracy.
I’m going to be interested to see how blogthevote2004.org turns out for just this reason. Not to say that our site will end up being a major forum for young voters. But I am anxious to see if the kids who do use it get more engaged for the simple reason that they are able to contribute to the dialogue in an easy way. If nothing else, Web logs are giving people the ability to feel more connected to the candidates or to the causes, and I think that’s one step in the direction of repairing the sense of disenfranchisement that a lot of people feel. Hopefully that will be the case with this experiment as well.
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