Web Powers People-Driven Politics

Many Americans Are Fighting For Causes Through Self-Made Groups

(AP) 
"I was mad at people for not doing anything. I was mad at the system and I was mad at James West," she said after her campaign succeeded in convincing voters and the mayor was recalled. "I'm not so mad anymore."

Roberta Bailey likes Pugs — the jowly, wrinkly faced breed of dog she keeps as a pet. She also likes punk rock and people. With the help of the Internet, the Manhattan photographer found a way to combine her interests: She organized a group of Pug owners who fought to save a legendary punk venue.

"I got off my butt and did something cool," she said.

Using the Meetup.com Web site, Bailey organized a "Million Pug March" in Washington Square Park to show support for the venerable club CBGB. It's as close to politics as she has ever come.

"Who knows what me and the Pugs can do to change the world some day," she said, giggling.

Howard Dean used Meetup.com in 2003 to organize anti-war activists behind his Democratic presidential campaign. Though his candidacy petered out, the Web site continued to grow.

Nearly 2 million people log into the site to find others with similar interests. There are more than 4,000 topics — everything from witches and pagans to wine enthusiasts, working moms and divorced dads.

"People really get a certain high about connecting with other human beings," said Scott Heiferman, the site's co-founder. "Because we live in such an isolated culture, when people come together with other like-minded people, there is a sense of, 'Let's organize to do something."'

Matt Margolis got tired of hearing about the rising influence of liberal blogs so he scrolled the Internet for advice on how to start an online diary of his own. He enlisted writers. He got help with designing a home page. He found somebody who knew how to write computer coding.

Blogsforbush.com was born.

"It took a community of people to get me going," said the 25-year-old architecture student from Boston. By the end of the 2004 election, he had nearly 1,500 other bloggers posted on his site — an army of Bush backers who donated time and money to the president's re-election campaign and wrote letters to the editor on Mr. Bush's behalf.

Dave Renzella is a fitness instructor at Omni gym in Fort Myers, Florida. In his spare time, he plugs into the MoveOn Web site to get the e-mail addresses of fellow liberals and tries to organize them.

"I'm not an activist at heart. I'm a gym rat," he said, "but the Internet makes it easy to combine an interest in people with an interest in politics."

Eli Pariser, the 25-year-old executive director of MoveOn Political Action, said the people-driven trend is a good thing for democracy, a chance to "shift the balance of power from established interests that can raise of lot of money and lobby special interests to a bunch of bubble-up, bottom-up citizen campaigns."

These newly empowered constituents are using technology to send a message to politicians. Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack frequently hears from citizens via e-mails on his Blackberry.

"It's great because it reconnects people to government. It's created a sense of community and a sense of belonging," he said.

Politicians who pay little heed could find frustrated voters banding together and creating a third-party movement.

"At some point this has got to reach critical mass," Kofinis, the Democratic Party consultant, said. "Nobody knows when that will happen or how that will happen, but it will literally explode into a movement."