New In The Phoenix -- Here Come The Netroots
In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print tomorrow, online now -- I take a look at the state of the online progressive movement, in preparation for Netroots Nation 2012 coming to Providence. It's part of a package of articles on the conference.
Six years ago I attended the first Netroot Nation, then called YearlyKos, in Las Vegas. I had already been writing about the whole lefty-blogosphere-activism-thing for at least three years; I interviewed Markos Moulitsas and other bloggers for articles in 2003, and wrote the first profile of ActBlue back in 2004. So I feel like I know a little bit about this stuff.
That doesn't mean I'm sure where it is, or where it's going. But I think the question people were going around asking six years ago, "but does any of this matter," has been answered in the affirmative. At least, to some degree.
My new article is here: Rallying The Troops
Plus, David Scharfenberg's preview and guide for the conference.
And Chris Faraone has a look at how the Occupy movement does, or doesn't, fit in, which I'll link to when it's online.
Update: Here's Faraone's very interesting piece, and also (a piece I forgot to mention earlier) Scharfenberg's feature on what lessons to take from the SOPA battle.