Blogs outside the Beltway
One of the most prevalent campaign attacks against incumbent candidates is that the candidate is "too inside the Beltway" or is "out of touch" with those he or she represents. While most of us probably accept the fact that these types of statements will be made, I wonder how much we actually accept those statements as truth.
If there's one thing that I've realized since moving to DC, it is that Washington really does operate in its own bubble, and many times people (myself included) forget that people outside the Beltway may not view things the same as we do. Most of us spend our time consumed by politics, and have a tendency to forget that politics are not a high priority for most people. A contemporary example of this is the expectation that less than 10% of the eligible voting population will vote on Tuesday's Virginia primary.
None of this is really news, the system has been rampant with political apathy for years. However, in thinking about this, I started thinking about blogs and how they are frequently touted as the force that will bring a renewed spirit of political participation to the masses. After all...I have a blog, I read blogs every day, almost everyone I know in DC has a blog. Then I remembered...what about my friends at home? So, I took an unofficial survey to gauge the general perception of blogs outside in the "real" world.
Most people I talked to knew what blogs were, but with a few expections, none read political blogs on a frequent basis. Of those who did state that they read blogs at least once in a while, all but one said the only blog that they read was their friends (which, while flattering personally, can hardly be portrayed as serious political blog reading). But not a single person said that they read the "major blogs" such as Daily Kos, Powerline, etc.
Of those who never read blogs, I received several amusing answers. One friend said she wasn't quite sure what a blog was, or even where she would go to read one. Another simply stated no, then went on to tell me that she was quite dismayed with Fox for not showing several episodes of the OC that she had missed last season. A third person stated that he had read his ex-girlfriend's blog one time to make fun of her, but he didn't "think that was real." And finally, one showed interest in her friend's blog, but would always ask "How is your bog?"
We can laugh, and some people may think internally that these people are uninformed or stupid, but I don't really think that a lack of interest in politics qualifies this sort of response. After all, there's no way that I could look at a prescriptions and tell you the chemical composition and drug interactions, or develop an entire advertising campaign for a commerical product (both of which could be accomplished by a variety of people that I talked to).
I'm not an expert, so I can't really say what this says about the future of blogs. Perhaps someday they'll become more popular with the average person, or maybe they'll keep their place as a niche political tool. However, I do believe that once in a while we should give ourselves a reality check and realize that politics are not all-encompassing. Maybe developing the ability to do this will allow us to better relate to those we represent in the future, and avoid being targeted with claims about having "gone Washington."
If there's one thing that I've realized since moving to DC, it is that Washington really does operate in its own bubble, and many times people (myself included) forget that people outside the Beltway may not view things the same as we do. Most of us spend our time consumed by politics, and have a tendency to forget that politics are not a high priority for most people. A contemporary example of this is the expectation that less than 10% of the eligible voting population will vote on Tuesday's Virginia primary.
None of this is really news, the system has been rampant with political apathy for years. However, in thinking about this, I started thinking about blogs and how they are frequently touted as the force that will bring a renewed spirit of political participation to the masses. After all...I have a blog, I read blogs every day, almost everyone I know in DC has a blog. Then I remembered...what about my friends at home? So, I took an unofficial survey to gauge the general perception of blogs outside in the "real" world.
Most people I talked to knew what blogs were, but with a few expections, none read political blogs on a frequent basis. Of those who did state that they read blogs at least once in a while, all but one said the only blog that they read was their friends (which, while flattering personally, can hardly be portrayed as serious political blog reading). But not a single person said that they read the "major blogs" such as Daily Kos, Powerline, etc.
Of those who never read blogs, I received several amusing answers. One friend said she wasn't quite sure what a blog was, or even where she would go to read one. Another simply stated no, then went on to tell me that she was quite dismayed with Fox for not showing several episodes of the OC that she had missed last season. A third person stated that he had read his ex-girlfriend's blog one time to make fun of her, but he didn't "think that was real." And finally, one showed interest in her friend's blog, but would always ask "How is your bog?"
We can laugh, and some people may think internally that these people are uninformed or stupid, but I don't really think that a lack of interest in politics qualifies this sort of response. After all, there's no way that I could look at a prescriptions and tell you the chemical composition and drug interactions, or develop an entire advertising campaign for a commerical product (both of which could be accomplished by a variety of people that I talked to).
I'm not an expert, so I can't really say what this says about the future of blogs. Perhaps someday they'll become more popular with the average person, or maybe they'll keep their place as a niche political tool. However, I do believe that once in a while we should give ourselves a reality check and realize that politics are not all-encompassing. Maybe developing the ability to do this will allow us to better relate to those we represent in the future, and avoid being targeted with claims about having "gone Washington."
2 Comments:
I've run into very much the same situations. When describing this class and these blogs to friends of mine in the context of this being a generally cool assignment, the disconnect between what I was explaining and what they were hearing was huge. When I said, "I have to keep a blog for this class," pretty much all of them said something like, "Oh man, I'm sorry."
A fun project for me was punishment for them.
I could not agree with you more! It is amazing after living in DC for a little over a year, how much of bubble exsisting "inside the beltway" really is. Like you, some of my friends back home don't feel that blogs hold a great deal of credibility, and the rest have not even heard of the term blog. But I don't necessarily find them to be dumb or uninformed -- it is just that the things that are important/relevant in DC are not always what are important/revelant to the rest of the country.
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