New York Jewish Week, USA
Aug 23 2007
Jewish Voice At Yearly Kos
Mik Moore
The ruckus they raised ousted then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott
(R-Miss.) from his leadership position. The money and activists they
mobilized helped put several long-shot Democratic candidates from red
states into Congress. And their sustained attention to the departure
of seven U.S. prosecutors from the Justice Department created a
bonfire that has destroyed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’
credibility.
Yet, when liberal bloggers – denizens of that noisy, cranky,
high-intensity region of the Internet where individuals air their
personal views, analyses, musings and, at times, reporting – held
their major conference earlier this month, Jewish groups were nowhere
to be seen.
In contrast, all but one of the Democratic presidential candidates
came to Chicago for YearlyKos, the second annual gathering of
progressive bloggers, organizers, and Democratic operatives. The
event, which is named for the popular blog DailyKos, attracted 1,500
people.
To be sure, there were plenty of individual Jews among the attendees
at YearlyKos. But out of 350 speakers, I was the only representative
from a Jewish organization or blog. Jewish organizations were also
conspicuously absent from the numerous tables and stalls at Chicago’s
McCormick Place Convention Center.
In this community of increasing influence in public affairs, the
absence of both the organized Jewish community and the unorganized
Jewish blogosphere was anomalous. After all, Jews are leaders in the
Democratic Party. Most Jewish organizations have close ties to
progressive lawmakers. And Jewish organizations are usually smart
enough to have a seat at almost every powerful table.
At an event with sufficient clout to attract almost the entire field
of Democratic presidential candidates, sponsored by a blog that
attracts more than half a million readers every day, it was unusual
to witness Jewish groups ceding the field.
I think two overlapping phenomena explain our community’s absence.
One of the guiding philosophies of DailyKos, as articulated by its
founder and namesake, Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, is the belief that
interest groups have hurt the Democratic Party and progressive
politics in America. Kos has repeatedly attacked organizations like
NARAL, a pro-choice group, for endorsing vulnerable Republican
members of Congress because of their voting record on singular issues
of importance to them.
These interest groups, according to Kos, represent the `old’ way of
doing business. They focus on their own, often narrow issues instead
of helping to build a progressive movement. This parochialism
accurately describes the current state of much of the Jewish civic
square.
However, Jewish organizations were not the only interest groups
missing from YearlyKos. Although Kos’ recently told `Meet The Press’
that `everybody else in the party coalition [except for the
Democratic Leadership Council] has come together,’ few of the major
ethnic, racial or religious organizations had a presence. The
established organizations that were there, including People for the
American Way, the AFL-CIO, assorted international unions and the
American Civil Liberties Union, were liberal stalwarts who have
embraced the Internet and who understand that occasional alignment on
some issues, with some conservatives, does not a bipartisan movement
make.
The overwhelming majority of speakers at YearlyKos were independent
bloggers, elected officials and their staff, or people affiliated
with new, Internet-based organizations. It is a constituency that
attracts and develops many of the most valuable activists, raises
large sums of money online, and masters new technology. Freed from
some of the constraints of more established interest groups, the
`netroots’ is generally less ideologically rigid, valuing
authenticity in its candidates. Newly elected Sens. Jon Tester
(D-Mont.) and Jim Webb (D-Va.) are two favorites.
A second reason for their absence is the fact that the Jewish
community has not figured out what to do about the new forms of
communications, networking and organizing represented by blogs and
various Web 2.0 tools. Although there were some people at YearlyKos
who came only for the politics, I think the overwhelming majority
were bloggers or otherwise engaged in online communication or
community building. Note that this absence extended to the Jewish
blogosphere. The blog I edit, jspot.org, is one of a small handful of
Jewish blogs with credibility and relationships outside of the Jewish
blogging community.
One of the inherent challenges that blogging presents to more
established organizations is the premium the forum places on candor,
independence and individuality. Traditional Jewish organizations
typically have one spokesperson and the message is tightly
controlled, as vividly demonstrated by the recent dismissal of the
New England regional director of the Anti-Defamation League for
acknowledging the Armenian genocide. If these groups are interested
in entering this world as members of the online community, this will
have to change.
The openness and unpredictability of blogs has already tested the
Jewish community’s understanding of the medium. Because blogs and
other online forums are open to all users, on rare occasions visitors
to the sites write anonymous comments that are racist, sexist,
anti-Semitic or otherwise inappropriate. Partisans have sought to use
these comments to negatively characterize Web-based groups like
MoveOn.org or blogs like DailyKos, and by implication any candidates
who accept their support. Thus far, nonpartisan Jewish groups have
not taken the bait, but they will be tested repeatedly as the
election season gets closer.
In the months and years to come, Jewish organizations will need to
reevaluate our relationship with technology and the communities whose
growth has been a product of that technology. We must begin to change
our culture to allow for – even encourage – debate and dissent in the
public square. Otherwise some of the younger, more nimble Jewish
organizations will fill the vacuum. n
Mik Moore is director of communications and public policy at the
Jewish Funds for Justice and the editor of jspot.org, its blog and
online action center.