This is my fourth year at Netroots Nation, and I have seen a steady improvement in the overall content of the panels. But this year there is a major difference. In the past, you could go to panels on your particular interests and perhaps a couple to expand your political voice or interests. You would learn a lot and meet people with similar interests and find a community to work with.
This year is different. This year Elijah actually showed up, and his name is ALEC.
This year our various interests are connected. This year, whether you are interested in gun politics, education, the environment, whatever, all of us are learning that we are fighting the same infrastructure. ALEC Exposed is working.
I do not know what effect this will have on our activism. We may continue working in our own little spaces. But some of us, I hope, will begin to work to build our own infrastructure to counter theirs effectively.
The net has the potential to become the means to build that infrastructure. All that we need is to think structurally. All? Well, that's not going to be easy, but I'm glad to be here to witness a beginning.
Thanks to ALEC Exposed, and to the bloggers who have been writing about it for the past year. Knowledge is indeed the first step to change.
12:04 PM PT: I did not expect this to make the Rec List. Thanks.