By Chris Bowers and Matt Kerbel
This is the last of five diaries looking at the 2016 election from the perspective of our new book Next Generation Netroots: Realignment and the Rise of the Internet Left. The previous four articles can be found here.
See if this sounds familiar to you:
In our new book, Next Generation Netroots, we tell the story of a relatively small group of philosophically aligned citizens operating on the margins of political debate who unite for the purpose of challenging the political mainstream. They want to move American politics in their direction, but they have no organization and few resources, and their ideas are so at odds with prevailing beliefs that it’s easy for establishment figures to disregard them. Seeking to be heard, they establish a new media platform and begin making noise. They press hard against the leadership of the party that should in theory be sympathetic to their ideas but find that elected officials are set in their way of doing things and early attempts to shake up the party fall short.
Still, they persevere. Their media presence allows them to build an intellectual infrastructure, which serves as a precursor to making a serious bid for political power. It allows them to build at the grassroots. Upstart movement leaders start organizing and learning from their mistakes. They figure out how to identify supporters and mobilize them. They learn how to raise money through small contributions. And they start to get noticed. No longer dismissed as gadflies, their early organizational success makes them a potential threat to the power structure. Party elites who originally ignored the movement and then ridiculed it are forced to engage it, while the movement draws the scorn of the mainstream media, which movement leaders contend is trying to crush the upstarts before they grow large enough to become threatening.
