Customer Reviews

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised : Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I hadn't really realized it before I read this book, but television--and especially televised politics--is a ridiculous notion. Trippi talks candidly about how he rejected the old model with his work on the Dean campaign, a campaign more about its supporters than its candidate. He explains how bottom-up business models like eBay and Napster are shaking up traditional corporations, and how these phenomena are essentially movements rather than simple businesses--and are therefore ultimately unstoppable.

Trippi walks us through the Dean campaign, dwelling more on the principles and themes than on day-to-day operations. This isn't a post-mortem or a retrospective as much as it is a vision for the future of American politics. Those of us who followed the campaign saw where the Internet took it; Trippi shows us what lies farther along that path--the trail he blazed--last year.

Amazon itself has a grassroots element to it: the customer comments we post here can make or break the sales of the books we review. Trippi seems to understand this--he mentions specific people by their "handles" from the Dean Blog, at times giving them as much credit as he did seasoned political folks on the campaign staff.

Great book, well-written, and fun to read.

Edit of 20 Dec 07 to add links.

Joe Trippi has produced a very fine personal story that clearly presents Trippi, Dean, and the Internet as the people's tool, in the context of "early days." His big point is in the title: this is about the overthrow of "everything."

I took off one star for two reasons: his very limited "tie in" to the broad literature on the relationship between the Internet and a *potentially but not necessarily* revitalized democracy; and his relative lack of attention to the enormous obstacles to electronic democracy getting traction, including the corruption of the entire system from schoolhouse to boardroom to White House.

There is a broad data point that Trippi missed that adds great power to his personal appreciation of the future: the inexpensive DoKoMo cell phone and network approach from Japan, when combined with Sony's new playstation that is connected to the Internet and opens up terabytes on online storage to anyone with $300, and to this I would add [...]semantic web and synthetic intelligence architectures--these all combine into finally making possible the electronic connectivity of poor and working class voters, not just the declining middle class and the wealthy. 2008 is the earliest that we might see this, but I suspect it won't be until after two more 9-11's, closer to 2012.

There are a number of gems throughout the book, and I will just list a few phrases here:

-- politics of concentric circles--find the pebble in every town

-- polling substitute's conviction for bullshit (his word)

-- citing Robert Putnam in "Bowling Alone," every hour of television watching translates to a 10% drop in civic involvement

-- what gets destroyed in scorched earth politics is democracy

-- McCain led the way for Dean in using the Internet and being an insurgent ("the Republican branch of the Republican Party")

-- the dirty secret of US politics is that fund-raising (and I would add, gerrymandering) take the election decision out of the hands of voters

-- the existing party machines are dinosaurs, focused on control rather than empowerment--like government bureaucracies, they cannot accept nor leverage disruptive innovation (see my review of "The Innovator's Solution")

-- Open Source Rules--boy, do I agree with him here. He describes Dean's campaign as the first really committed "open source" campaign, and this is at the heart of the book (pages 98-99). One reason I have come to believe in open source software, open source intelligence, and open spectrum is that I see all three as essential to the dismantling of the Maginot line of politics, institutional dominance of money and votes on the Hill.

-- Media will miss the message. He has bitter words for the media spin and aggression that helped bring Dean down, but his more thoughtful remarks really emphasize the mediocrity of the entertainment media and its inability to think for itself.

-- TIRED: transactional politics. WIRED: transformational politics

-- Democratic fratricide killed Dean--Gephardt on his own, and Clark with backing from Clinton, killed the insurgency

-- Cumulative Intelligence is a term that Trippi uses, and he puts in a strong advertisement for Google's gmail that I found off-putting. Googling on the term "collective intelligence" will get one to the real revolutionaries. When he quotes Google as saying it will "harness the cumulative intelligence of its customers" this reminds me of my own phrase from the early 1990's, one Mike Nelson put in one of Al Gore's speeches, about the need to harness the distributed intelligence of the Whole Earth. My point: we don't need Google to get there--collective intelligence is already happening, and Google is a side show.

Tripi's final chapter has "seven rules": 1) Be first; 2) Keep it moving; 3) Use an authentic voice; 4) Tell the truth; 5) Build a community; 6) Cede control; 7) Believe again.

There are a rather lame few pages at the end on Change for America. Forget it. Change for America is going to be bottom-up, from the county level.

I want to end by noting that at one point, on page 156, I wrote in the margin, "this is a moving book," but also express my frustration at how unwilling Dean and Trippi were to listening to those of us (Jock Gill, Michael Cudahay, myself), who tried very hard to propose a 24/7 team of retired Marine Corps watchstanders with structured staff processes; a massive outreach to non-Democratic voters including the 20$ of the moderate Republican wing ready to switch. On page 161 Trippi writes "The truth is that we never really fixed the inherent problems in the organization that I saw that first day...." I could not help but write in the margin, "We told them so."

The problem with Dean and Trippi is they became enchanted with the blogs and the newness of its all--as well as the fund-raising--and lost sight of the fundamentals. The winner in 2008 or 2012 will have to strike a better balance. One other note: the revolution that Trippi talks about is sweeping through Latin America, with active Chinese, Korean, and Japanese interest. It is just possible that electronic populism will triumph in Latin America before public intelligence becomes commonplace in America.

See also:

A Power Governments Cannot Suppress

One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization

Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People

The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All

The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter

The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World

Collective Intelligence: Mankind's Emerging World in Cyberspace

Group Genius: The Creative Power of Collaboration

All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents)

Escaping the Matrix: How We the People can change the world

It typically takes me a week to read a book. I read this one in one day. I cancelled a business meeting and missed a flight in order to finish it. I called my wife and friends. I bought copies for my clients who I've been trying to explain this "internet thing" to for months. And when I closed my own book, I let out a long breath that I had been holding for weeks.

As a national community, we're twisting and turning, frustrated and wringing our hands for relief... but of what? Why are we going crazy? Why is everyone in this country running around on antidepressants and prepackaged God-speak and Reality TV? We're chasing after personal growth and renewal - we're getting massaged and eating out more than ever before in history, but we don't find any relief.

The theme of the Dean campaign gave us a glimpse of what we seek. The relief that we crave can only be fully understood in the moment of acquisition... the moment we realize that we have the power. The government of our own country is in our hands. The 1960's should have left a thumbprint, but our parents forgot to tell their children: YOU HAVE THE POWER. And for those of you who need to bottle up a little hope and take it with you to the office, the book reads like an action novel. Thanks, Joe. Take leadership. America is listening ? and you have work to do.

~Ian Bryan, www.sensiblecity.com

Only a few of the 650,000 people in the Dean campaign

would deny that Joe Trippi worked his heart out for

all of us -- not for his own self-promotion.

His brilliance and risk-taking propelled a ragtag

band into a real loving community. Now, since the

candidate's loss in his bid for the presidency,

some are bitter, but Joe's book is not.

His rich story telling and analogies -- the Dean campaign

as a little league baseball team on the field with the

New York Yankees -- are inspiring and hopeful. He tells

all who were involved in our campaign that they really did

perform like the Miracle Mets.

His link back to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison,

and his look forward toward the promise of community

empowerment is just what the doctor ordered for any

American, cynical, disgusted and disillusioned. Give this

book to your friends, families and coworkers. And you

will be giving them a reason to believe in democracy

again.

Required reading for all politicians and corporate CEO's who still don't understand how the 'Net has changed EVERYTHING. Dean's success in using the 'Net is just a tip of a huge iceberg. This book gives readers ideas on how to pick up the baton from DeanForAmerica, Google, and the few other institutions that "get it" and run with it farther and faster than anyone thought possible. For the betterment of society AND more profits.

The book is also a positive message on the potential to change what ails our culture...the ability to get us all involved in deciding our future again. Go read it, then think about it, then get active. The tool is at the end of your fingertips.

I'm an insomniac, but it's rare for me to give up the 3 or 4 hours of sleep I am able to get in a night. Reading this book kept me up until the sun came up. Trippi's writing style is almost conversational and if you paid attention to the Dean campaign, you can almost hear his voice in your head while reading the book.

It was a glorious, painful, and hopeful read, reliving some the incredible highs and incredible lows of the Dean campaign. I started following Dean online before Trippi was the campaign manager, so the book was full of nostalgia, but also some interesting nuggets of the "inside story." The book is not a tell-all, but talks frankly about mistakes, both Trippi's and the campaign's, and what could have been.

Trippi follows the campaign from start to his stepping down as campaign manager, and the crash and burn is painful to remember for all of us. But just when the book reaches its lowest point, Joe "You gotta' believe" Trippi reminds us that we changed everything. And the Dean campaign wasn't a 10-second scream of an ending, it was a beginning of a movement to take politics away from the TV set and bring it back to our communities. The book ends on a positive note that rekindles the spirit and makes me think that next time, we'll succeed.

I teach American history, and after reading this book I am convinced that we are at an historic turning point in American electoral politics. For thirty years conservatives have out-spent and out-organized progressives. Mainstream media outlets across the country have been either cowed into irrelevance or bought up wholesale by right-wing media conglomerates. A generation of young Americans has grown up believing that Rush Limbaugh is a journalist rather than a propagandist. The permanent Republican majority seemed on the cusp of realization. And then along came Howard Dean and Joe Trippi.

Trippi's book, while predictably emphasizing his take on the successes and failures of the Dean campaign, makes a much larger point: that the internet changes EVERYTHING in politics. The democratization of fundraising, the revolution in how people get their news, and the empowerment of supporters all across the country to literally BECOME the campaign are only a few of the pioneering political techniques that Trippi describes in this important first-hand account.

Regardless of how the 2004 election turns out, I am convinced that historians will be citing this book for years.

This book is a history of the Dean Campaign for president and how the Internet and notably Meetup.com and the Dean website and blog supplied the funds and expertise (along with Joe Trippi of course) to drive his candidacy. Mr. Trippi notes that they initially set out to raise funds over the Internet and organize rallies in cities through out the country. Dean's candidacy with his disarming honesty and his first stand against the War in Iraq brought him some early media coverage. This started an Internet fire when Meetup.org coupled with the Dean web page with its feedback and fund raising aspects. The campaign grew exponentially with bottom up as well as top down feedback and leadership.

The Dean Campaign Was Self-Driven.

Joe Trippi tells how they would post a campaign poster, slogan or some other idea and ask for comments and thousands of people with experience in communications, graphics and other areas would volunteer their advice and vote on it. If he wanted to have a rally in a city like Austin volunteers though Meetup.com would put out the word arrange for the hall and fund the event. No need for political advance men or to consult local political operatives to raise and audience unless they were already on Dean's team. Thus through the Internet the campaign took on a life of it's own. Dean and Trippi raised about forty-to-fifty million dollars through the Internet. Then one day it all stopped.

The Political Professionals and The Media Attack.

Mr. Trippi blames Richard Gephardt and Wesley Clark's television attack ads for destroying the Dean candidacy in Iowa and New Hampshire. He downplays the importance of the Dean concession speech in Iowa as the key to the Dean downfall although he concedes that the mainstream media who at first overlooked the power and importance of the

Dean Campaign were all too happy to seize on this one event to vindicate their earlier failure to treat Dean as a serious candidate. The media played loops of the speech, for approximately forty-eight hours nationally, over and over to the detriment of Howard Dean and his campaign.

Trippi The Jeffersonian Idealist.

Trippi, a Jeffersonian purist, foresees that the Internet will help Americans take back the government from the hands of lobbyists and other large donors by returning political power to individuals who give $20 to $100 dollars to the candidate of their choice. One wonders if political power ever resided with these people in the first place or if this is just another piece of nostalgic exuberance on the part of Joe Trippi. He exhorts the reader to embrace his vision like a football coach at half time. If he weren't in politics he would be in sports driving his team home.

The Power Of Small Motivated Numbers.

Trippi states that Dean's 600,000 Internet supporters made a difference for a while. Why? Despite the fact that almost 115 million people voted in this election Dean's cadre were activists willing to go to rallies and donate time and money for a candidate they believed in. Most voters were passive observers only committing themselves in the voting both. These passives are hardly Jeffersonian democrats actively participating in the political process. In the end these passives decided the election not on The Iraqi War issue that Dean framed or the populist economic values that he endorsed but on the alleged moral values espoused by Pat Roberson, Jerry Farwell, Rush Limbaugh and others of the same ilk. So maybe Trippi's enthusiasm for a new Internet democracy is a little early. The Internet and other emerging electronic communication devices have possibilities that may change politics. Whether or not they will become the dominant force remains to be seen because unless the majority of American voters become more actively involved an organized minority will always be in control.

Who Is The Most Jeffersonian?

The interesting thing about this book is that Dean happened and then was so easily toppled by the political pros. Trippi doesn't mention it but the reality is the entrenched political establishment in both parties are well funded by large donors, lobbyists, businesses, trade groups, professional associations and unions and presently hold political power. Does he think they are going to cede power to a "pure" candidates funded and empowered by the Internet? Remember Kerry also raised about eighty million through the Internet for the 2004 general election. However he funded his primary campaign privately by mortgaging his house. Kerry used about half his personal wealth for the primary something Howard Dean did not do. So who is the most Jeffersonian?

Big Donors Still Dominate The Candidates.

Joe Trippi published his book before election, but these facts are helpful in evaluating his thesis.

Kerry's general election campaign received 74.6 million in government matching funds as did the Bush campaign.

Overall Kerry spent 318 million dollars to Bush's nearly 361 million. Thirty-five percent of Kerry's money came from donations of $2000 or more and Bush's $2000 or more donors constituted fort-nine percent of his overall total. By contrast Deans percentage of two thousand or more donors was eleven percent. Opensecrets.org.

Television Is The Persuader of Choice.

The other interesting thing Trippi mentions is that Deans Funds were mostly spent on television ads. So it looks like television with its sound bite ads, attack ads and last minute falsehood ads is still the dominant persuader in statewide and national elections. Therefore the book's title is somewhat misleading in this respect if there is a revolution in political funding it will still be spent in the form of television ads like the ones described. Trippi hates the influence of television, which he sees as costly and corruptive because the candidates have no choice but to raise the funds, by any means necessary, to advance their campaigns on television. Trippi doesn't mention that while television has its shortcomings especially in the advertising department those who were willing to read the articles by the print media especially newspapers like the N.Y. Times, The Washington Post and the L.A. Times and magazines like Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, and The New Yorker to name but a few got excellent coverage. However just as the Dean/Trippi campaign focused on the Iraqi war and domestic economic issues these organizations were also not focused on the importance of value issues to the election. It appears neither the mainline media nor the democratic candidate had their ear to the ground in the Heartland where the election was decided. In fact Kerry looked phoney and foolish in his duck hunting publicity events in Ohio. The people he thought he was fooling were alienated by his talking down to them in this way. Joe Trippi could have helped here.

However to be accurate the revolution Trippi is talking about is the way funds are raised and the use of the Internet as a political organizing tool with bottom up participation.

Dean Never Gave Trippi Overall Authority As Campaign Manager

Mr. Trippi states that Howard Dean never gave him financial control over the campaign and this prevented him from hiring an experienced political staff.

According to Mr. Trippi the reason Dean faded from the scene is that his campaign lacked an adequate staff of seasoned political organizers at a critical time in Iowa. Apparently he means people with savvy enough to get Dean off the stage in Iowa or at least write a concession speech that would have been made him more attractive as a candidate. That it seems was his Achilles heel, when he was tired and suffering from a defeat there was no one to protect him. Thus he was counted out in a small state like Iowa with influence greatly in excess of its political weight because of the media coverage of its early primary. The media and his adversaries exploited this moment to drain off his charisma. After the Iowa campaign Internet funds dried up as quickly as they appeared.

Yet it was Dean's spontaneity, and honesty that caught his supporter's attention in the first place. His early position on the War in Iraq bought him mainstream media coverage and that triggered the Internet support. However this spontaneity and honesty looked foolish and naive in Iowa on the night of the election.

Trippi indicates that he left the campaign without being fully paid. He also says Dean undercut him by never giving him full authority over the campaign that he infused with life by the Internet. That is the risk of working for a babe in the woods.

So what do we know from this book:

1. The Internet can be a significant source of funds.

2. Television ads are still the dominant means of reaching the electorate in state and national elections.

3. Internet donors don't seem interested in backing a third party candidate at least up to now.

4. Mainstream media can still make or break a candidacy.

5. Dean was easily toppled by the entrenched political establishment when the going got rough as was the John McCain campaign.

6. The internet and other electronic communicating devices other than television are still evolving and their ultimate impact on politics remains to be seen.

7. Lobbyists and other major fundraisers are not going to give up their death grip on politics easily.

8. The majority of American voters are not actively involved in the political process beyond voting and many times they do not even do that.

9. An active minority will always have disproportionate power.

This was a stimulating book to read, told by a man actually in the trenches and not some armchair prognosticator. One cannot help but be impressed Mr. Trippi's ideas, enthusiasm, optimism, love of political life and most of all the American people.Edsopinion.com

This book was awesome. The story of the Dean campaign is incredible. The most interesting part of the campaign is how the internet, this new media, single handedly gave the power back to the people. Trippi's writing is very amusing and robust with information (a nice combo if you ask me). I am a Dean supporter and I wish he could have gone further, but I am thankful for what him and his campaign has done for democracy. Trippi's analysis of where the internet can take us was especially interesting.

This book transcends the trendy genre of political tell-all to expound on the virtues and pitfalls of life and work in a changing political paradigm. Trippi, through his years of experience in the field of electoral politics, shows his readers the brave new world of internet-driven democracy and makes us understand what the technological advancements will mean for grassroots politics in the election cycles to come. Beyond his thoughts on the future of politics, Trippi does shed a very interesting light on what really happened to the Dean campaign, from the highest of heights to its darker moments. An enlightening and engaging read, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised will keep you fixated on one goal, taking our country back for ordinary Americans again.