What If Paul Revere Had Twitter?

I don't want to put too fine a point on this one instance, but the coming of age of blogs and other new media combined with the misunderstanding of political movements in America and the world is why I actually have some hope for the Tea Party movement.

The internet has changed politics - changed it utterly and forever. Twenty-four hours ago, I made a three-minute speech in the European Parliament, aimed at Gordon Brown. I tipped off the BBC and some of the newspaper correspondents but, unsurprisingly, they ignored me: I am, after all, simply a backbench MEP.

There was a fair amount of push back to a recent post of mine suggesting that people, not political leaders, change things in America. The fact is it has always been the people, not politicians at the cutting edge of change.

True, Lincoln was the great Emancipator, but he became that by eventually becoming the leader of an abolitionist movement that rose up from the people long before. And even then he took on the mantle somewhat begrudgingly. That's the difference between library shelf History and real History I was referring to here.

From Dorothea Dix and the Suffragettes, to the Temperance Movement and westward expansion, those and many more American movements started with the people from the ground up before ever being codified as serious political movements through their eventual political leadership. That change comes mostly from the top down in America is a myth perpetuated by the top.

Yes, it's an Army of Davids thing, but what has always fascinated me most about New Media is its power for democratizing media. And it's silly to think it won't do the very same thing for politics. These are different times. Issues, not whether you are on the Left or Right, drive genuine, long-term political movement in America.

Kos and Armstrong may have Crashed the Gate, but that does not mean there won't be a crush of more moderate Americans right behind them more interested in tearing down the walls.

Today a simple call like this will reach far more people than a Paul Revere could have ever alarmed with his longest ride. So I don't at all believe revolution is dead in America. In many ways, I believe it has only begun.

Comments

[IslamoLlama]

What If Paul Revere Had Twitter?

I imagine he wouldn't be quite as famous. Although, if the English were savvy enough to track IP Addresses, he probably would have been captured and hung relatively quickly.

Still, if you want to see a real internet militant uprising, you'd probably learn more from bit torrent traffickers and Anonymous anti-Scientology crusaders. Worth noting that a great many tricks the American Revolutionaries used to combat the British came from pirates, smugglers, and anti-religious (in this case, anti-Church of England) reactionaries.

Of course, studying these guys might actually reveal what is blatantly obvious to everyone else - you're not actually being persecuted at all. After reading up on what the average college student has to suffer for downloading the newest Metallica Album or the latest Sopranos episode, or how various Scientology insiders try to quash their opponents in the media and on the net, you might be shocked to discover that you're not in any danger at all. There's no grand conspiracy to destroy conservatism (you've crushed it under your own boot heels just fine without any outside help). The Army of Davids has no Goliath to fight.

Your little revolution is going to look awfully silly as you rail against... nothing really. A 3% hike in a tax bracket you're not in. Regulation on businesses you don't own or even work for. A change of foreign policy with countries you'll never visit.

So please, go nuts. It's always fun to see you guys tilt at windmills for your own glory.

[Jim Durbin]

IslamoLlama would have us quietly accept the loss of freedom as a mere inconvenience. Should we silence our tongues and dishonor our country because the taxman has yet to steal all our bounty? Should we not raise a voice in protest because no jack-booted thug has yet kicked in our door?

America is strong. It's strength lies in the spirit of those brave enough to demand accountability from our leaders.

Only a man filled with loathing for himself and all that God has given us would look down on the right of free men and women to hold their leaders to account.

Crawl back into your hole, villian. Men better than you have their birthright to reclaim.

[seekeronos]

"--- Your little revolution is going to look awfully silly as you rail against... nothing really. A 3% hike in a tax bracket you're not in. Regulation on businesses you don't own or even work for. A change of foreign policy with countries you'll never visit. ---"

I beg to differ.

That 3% tax hike in a middle of a recession-turning-into-a-depression is pretty significant.

If anything, we need both massive cuts in spending, AND deeper tax cuts and further de-regulation (and de-unionizing) of what remains of US industry to make it competitive again.

The Red Chinese aren't going to be willing to float our debt forever, as we continue to inflate and "print" more useless FRNs, and there will come a point where they will find new markets for their cash: namely, when they start buying out our bankrupted nation at fire-sale prices, and drive the everyday American into Weimar style hyperinflation as the government struggles to contain the currency collapse.

Take a read thru Peter Schiff's book "Crash Proof: How to Profit From the Coming Economic Collapse" for why this is going to happen, as well as Dr. Takahiko Soejima's works regarding the ongoing collapse of the American Financial Empire.

So while significant damage has been done, and is still ongoing... it could be turned around were Obama and his Democrat(ic) Congress do the right thing by choking off any further bailouts, extending and increasing the tax cuts, and bring the troops home to actually repel the Mexican invasion of our borders.