Here is an except from Chris Lydon's interview with Joe Trippi - Dean's Campaign Manager. Lessons for us all
Trippi's thinking began with next fall's campaign and worked backwards. The question was how to find 2-million workers and raise $200-million in small contributions against an incumbent Republican with unlimited cash. An entirely out-of-control, viral Internet contagion was the only means of building those numbers by November, 2004. The Dean campaign we have seen so far (with half a million recruits and about $30-million in income) is a preview of Trippi's strategy, not a culmination.
But he seems certain that George Bush is all wrong for the Internet. "In any medium, you have to say something," Trippi said, but the Internet in particular puts a premium on a certain style of provocation and a degree of authenticity that Howard Dean commands and George Bush does not. The other Republican handicap on the Internet, in the Trippi view, is that Bush and Rove have not even begun to unlearn the ancient rules of campaign command and control--rules that Trippi grew up with, too. "I know how tough it is to undo the wiring upstairs. But it's very simple: you cannot command and control the Internet."
Our conversation is here in three takes: Part One outlines some strategic fundamentals of Internet politics. Part Two is the story of Joe Trippi's development as an operative. Part Three is about 2004, including an Internet campaign for Congress.Joe Trippi has a placid assurance that the Democratic nomination is Dean's, that an epochal change in campaign politics is underway, and that we are on the verge of a historic collision of forces in American life.
(Chris Lydon via Dave Winer)
Isn't the Dean effect more than the election? Isn't it about an entirely new way of organizing? Industrial organizing all central effort and huge cost Trippi organizing letting go from the centre and boosting the development of local community. Please listen to the interviews - they are so powerful - so much more powerful than anything that I could write. I am thinking about how his advice can help with organizing a community of parents helping parents. I am also working on how to bring seniors back into the mainstream - is not this the way?
Trippi's main theme is what happens when 2 million Americans pay $100 to fund Dean? Special interest which has controlled America and most other countries wil be killed. This is such a powerful idea. I am sitting here with my second glass of wine listening to Trippi and I have not been so excited in well maybe ever. I may have so many faults but I know a tipping point when I see it.
