Deleting Online Politicians

When 410 members of the House of Representatives voted to ban MySpace and other social networking sites from minors in federally funded libraries and schools, do you think they considered that they may be, at best, impeding their own ability to communicate with MySpace's 95 million members?  Or, at worst, run the risk of alienating the "Millennials" -- an emerging generation only second in size to baby boomers?

Or do you think that much thought was put into the legal ramifications of banning political speech from public libraries?  (One Senate candidate has on the Politech email list).

The hotly-charged rhetoric about the evils lurking on social networking sites would make you think not.

But the truth is that a growing number of political candidates that have made the leap on to MySpace and now exist in an online neighborhood a few clicks away from child molestors (and teachers, Baptists, soccer moms and saints).  This incongruity underlines the reality that, for better or worse, MySpace is merely a reflection on society and not some alternative den of iniquity that threatens to overtake America like the Red Scare. 

Let's take a short, yet sometimes strange, trip through MySpace and see what politicos are doing there...

California gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides is going to need all the young voters that he can get to defeat Governor Schwarzenegger this November.  He put up his MySpace page about a month before his primary win in June.

Phil has 4,509 friends.   It's clear from even a quick reading  of the site that folks are taking it seriously and the MySpacers appreciate his presence.  One entry:

Mr. Governor to be.... We are COUNTing on you to win in November!!!!! im a political science major at de anza college right now! im a political junkie, its all i talk and read about and im looking for a career in politics! I really want to get involved in politics as soon as i can because thats my dream! im counting on you soooooo very much Mr. Angelides to win in november and move california back on the right track! its been way too long! please email me if you have an offers such as interships and stuff when u become governor because im a very hard working and dedicated person! -Jordan

From a May SF Chronicle piece on Angelides MySpace page:

   The tricky part is that this is so new, it may take old-school politicians and their handlers a while to catch on. And Angelides himself is a good example. The traditional way to humanize a candidate is to create a television commercial  --  like the one his campaign has been running frequently in California.

    In the commercial, his three daughters make earnest, if canned, statements about the values they've learned from their parents. It is very safe, very controlled and, frankly, a little boring.

    Contrast that with Angelides' MySpace site, where his youngest daughter, Arianna, 17, offers an entry in the "friends' comments'' section:

    "OMG (oh my God) it's Phil Angelides,'' she wrote. "I love that guy! He's pretty fly for a white guy if you ask me," she added, playing off lyrics of the Offspring tune.

Moving now to the Democratic National Committee MySpace page.  First things first.  What is the motivation behind streaming Gnarls Barkley's hit-of-the-summer "Crazy" on the site?  Is this a Howard Dean inspiration?  (Dean, btw, has his own MySpace page and has 1611 friends.)  Is the DNC trying to say that we are all crazy?  Very deep for a political committee with 2449 friends.

Anyway, regardless of music tastes, the DNC is clearly hanging on MySpace to meet the Millennials.  From a July Washington Post piece:

...in the 2004 presidential election, when the overall electorate showed a four-percentage-point increase in turnout from 2000, the turnout rate among people ages 18 to 24 increased by 11 points -- to 47 percent from 36 percent.

The spike was attributed, in part, to intense voter turnout efforts and a highly polarized election. But people who study this generation -- known as Generation Y, millennials and even DotNets -- say it is also disposed to be more politically active and passionate.

"The millennials are quite idealistic and concerned about a whole range of issues, compared to the Xers, which tend to be pessimistic and detached," said Peter Levine, director of the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement ...

[Yes, coming from a Gen Xer, I don't get kids these days.  Why be earnest and vote when you can hang out in front of a Circle-K, listen to Pavement, and then go eat sushi and not pay?]

Others with a MySpace page include Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland (767 friends), a Democrat gunning for Duncan Hunter's House seat in San Diego with 180 friends and a Congressional candidate from Tenneessee who likes MF Doom and "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle" (but who just lost his primary despite 1393 MySpace friends.)

Are there any actual members of Congress on MySpace?  Good question.  It's hard to tell.  Nancy Pelosi's page seems straightforward enough to be legit, but, then you hear the "if-you-are-going-to-San-Francisco-wear-flowers-in-your-hair" song streaming and you begin to wonder.  Other Member pages are clearly "fan" sites.  For instance, Senators Obama, Boxer, and Feingold all have supporters who are honoring them in MySpace.

During our trip through MySpace, Republican politicans were few and far between, but there is a grassroots GOP Republicans page with more than 15,000 members.

Still, campaign season is still young yet, and we would expect more come aboard soon.  In fact, MySpace expects it, too, and according to a July Time story on politicians on MySpace, the site plans to roll-out the welcome mat...

MySpace also hinted that it might soon more actively reach out to candidates. "Don't be surprised if we have a channel specially designed for politicians and others trying to make a positive impact on the world," says Jeff Berman, senior vice president for public affairs at MySpace.

Hurry, Mr. Berman.  It will do you a lot of good when the Senate takes up DOPA.  Plus, you are beginning to get competition like HotSoup.

And, also remember to remind folks that MySpace isn't just for politicians to interact with young voters.  It's also an incredible platform for the young to interact on political issues with each other as this Nation piece explains...

Students were already communicating about their lives through MySpace, so when immigration became a hot issue, why not that too? Sprinkled through the website's millions of pages, comments cropped up about the protests, the national boycott and how students felt about Congress trying to criminalize their parents' existence.

For example, "May1--san anto against 4437," a page mobilizing San Antonio protests against HR 4437, the Republican immigration bill, attracted more than 400 "friends" in two months. The site is run by an unnamed 36-year-old woman in San Antonio who provides updates on legislation and local events; it is plastered with colorful fliers, protest pictures, editorial cartoons and snippets of conversation from visitors. "Hell Yeah!!!! Let's do this so that we can show them that we are human beings, not "illegals!!" wrote Denise, a 20-year-old who visited the site a few days before the student walkout. There are also comments opposing illegal immigrants and criticizing protesters for waving Mexican flags; the site even devotes a subsection to "hate mail" from anti-immigration factions. The week before the May 1 boycott, Carl Webb, a 40-year-old in Austin, posted an open request for related events in his area. Webb, whose page greets visitors with a recording of Gil Scott-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," says he learned about immigration events from MySpace, which he uses to discuss "working-class struggles" and to communicate with "hundreds of political types."

Yet the messages also spread to young people who showed little interest in immigration or activism. The MySpace page of "G," a student at Marshall Senior High in Los Angeles, is devoted to Nike sneakers and rap music. But by late April, "G" posted what appeared to be his first political message, advising his friends to participate in the "National Boycott for Immigrant Rights No Work! No School! No Business as Usual!" Similar messages were quickly transmitted and discussed across pre-existing friendship networks. The Dallas Morning News reported that the pro-immigration rallies may be "the largest political gathering organized on [MySpace]."

Blocking kids from organizing politically would seem to run counter to most of this country's aspirations.  Blocking young and future voters from connecting with politicians might someday run counter to those politicians' aspirations.

-SG

Comments

[Mary]

Does everyone remember that The Presedential Election can be won even if you do not have the National Popular Vote? We have seen it happen.
With the Electoral Vote, most states, it doesn't matter if you vote or not. Most of the candidates running do not even bother to go to these States because it doesn't matter vote wise. They don't even tell you where they stand on all issues/ policies, or what they want to do for our Country etc. WE dont matter to them.
We are in the 21st Century here, there should be no use for the Electoral Vote. The actual vote should be used instead.
Everyone has to get involved here and write to our Representitives stating that they should get it passed that The National Popular Vote get used.
Every state has to get this into a bill to be presented to the Legislatures, when they Convene for 2007.
All 50 states should get involved. So far from what I have read there is only a handfull of States that have been working towards this.
For more info visit www.NationalPopularVote.com and www.every-vote-equal.com

[Caleb]

I belive that this isn't right, and is infringing the freedom of speech.