Alabama Politics in
Doc’s Political Parlor
& Home of Lawn Mower Repair

Lots to talk about… So let’s get on with it… Next on our list of the Top Ten Winners of the Alabama Elections…

#9. The Internet

Most really useful inventions - from refrigerators to microwave ovens, from telephones to the internet - go through stages on their way to widespread use:

1. Novel Idea,
2. Luxury Item,
3. Accepted Appliance, and finally,
4. Commonplace Tool.

Use of the internet is becoming widespread enough that the ‘net is much closer to the mature end of that cycle than it was only a few years ago. In this election, the internet grew into a particularly useful information tool beyond what it had in recent years. Think of all the campaign and election-related information that flowed freely in a manner unthinkable only an election or two ago.

• Candidates had their own campaign websites to extol their own virtues.
• Campaigns sent out email alerts to supporters.
• Television commercials were available for review anytime via YouTube and similar services.
• Here at the Parlor you could find G’s Daily News Digest served up every morning and get fresh news from around the state with an ease and convenience unimagined a few years ago.
• If that was not enough, you could check in with the Parlor’s campaign newsfeed for even more news stories.
• The website from the Secretary of State allowed anyone to dig into campaign finance reports to see whose money was flowing through what PACs and to what candidates.
• Political blogs from around the state and their readers kept up lively discussions on the issues and the campaigns.
• Falsehoods could be spread faster, of course, but they could be challenged faster.

More information is good, and the internet facilitated that information flow unlike in any previous election season.

In years past, the outlet did not exist for people to express in a far-reaching and effective manner their outrage over campaign claims made, for example, by Mark Gaines or Sunny Smallwood. This year, I received many email messages from people expressing their dismay at these campaigns.

One reader sent me email afterward and gave me permission to excerpt it:

I made the observation yesterday that this is the first time that I have really seen the effect of the internet on political campaigns. In particular, the internet fundamentally affected the impact that the traditional mailers used to have. In the past, a mailer like those sent out by Gaines and Smallwood could be very damaging because the opponent had virtually no way to respond quickly enough to the allegations. This time, however, your blog jumped on them and helped spread the word about their falsity. In addition, King’s campaign effectively used email chains to distribute Ginger Busby’s press release as well as attached recordings of Judge King’s radio ads responding to Gaines’ claims. I bet that I have talked with twenty people that got the Gaines mailer, but also read your blog or got the emails in response within hours of reading the mailer.

And undoubtedly the impact went far beyond the actual readers of these blogs and email messages. Most readers of blogs like this are the kinds of people to whom family members, co-workers, friends and acquaintances turn to get opinions. You are interested in these things, you keep up, the people around you know it and they want your opinion.

We have not seen the limits of how the internet will be used for campaigning. Some uses will be malicious, just like some uses of other tools (like the telephone) are malicious.

Granted, this is an idiosyncratic choice for an election season winner. But I shake my head in amazement when I consider this: this campaign season, people I did not know were sending me interesting information to share with other people I did not know. Quite interesting information to share with lots of people I did not know, and it all moved very quickly. We have not seen anything like this.

Related:
Top Ten Winners of the Alabama Elections
#10. Rep. Jeremy Oden

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