Internet Impact

Internet Impact

This evening, I came home from a reception and panel discussion about the impact of war on families of those in the military. It was a wrenching discussion, in many ways, with descriptions of wives with several children at home and no support network. These families live far from military bases, and the stories of those in the National Guard and Reserves are particularly tough. For many of them, survival has come by building their own networks and communities -- over the Internet, on iVillage. Tens of thousands of military spouses, parents, and grandparents have found that the Internet is a lifeline.

The Internet has transformed all of our lives in profound ways -- how we communicate with each other, how we organize into communities, how we get information and spread rumors and news, how we shop, and how we organize and spend our time. So it is not surprising that the Internet has transformed our politics. But the impact of the Web on politics is just beginning to take hold. Every politics observer these days is struggling to make sense of the remarkable communications revolution and what it will mean for voters, politicians, consultants, interest groups, and the media.

Consider the 2008 presidential campaign. It is in its 37th month. (I count its beginnings at the 2004 Republican presidential convention in New York, when George W. Bush's renomination was rivaled by the spectacle of putative 2008 candidates strutting on the catwalk, already jockeying for position to succeed their own party's president.) We are still months, or at least weeks, from the first actual primary or caucus. But we have already seen the power of the Web. It has transformed fundraising, at least for the Democrats, or at least for some Democrats with broad appeal. The fact that Barack Obama could ascend to the political stratosphere so readily is clearly linked to the Internet's unique ability to transform the excitement he brings to voters into a veritable fundraising machine -- now...