Micah Sifry brings to this topic a lifetime of engaged writing about politics, a commitment to progressive values, and a deep love for the possibility of transformation offered by the Internet. He is by no means an "Internet basher." In fact, I first met Micah during the Dean campaign when the hopes for the Internet's effect on politics and governance were at their highest. This book is an intervention by someone who still loves the Net.
That's what makes this heart-felt, fact-based, deeply informed assessment of the state of the Internet transformation so sobering. Micah holds dear the promise of the Net, understands the Net deeply, and is in despair. Anyone who has hoped that the Internet would provide a better way of campaigning and governing needs to read this book.
Micah makes the case for the failure of the Net to transform politics with a heavy heart. There's more big money in politics than ever, and the incumbent political forces have mastered the use of the Net as a tool of mass manipulation and distraction. He recognizes that the corruption of politics over the past twenty years is by no means the sole fault of the Internet; the parties, the Supreme Court, the President, and all of us are responsible, with the Net enabling the best of our behavior as well as the worst. He lays all this out clearly, with compelling stories, and without overstatement.
Try as he might, Micah has trouble finding reasons to hope, for if we've failed to take advantage of the the Net to democratize politics so far, what will change so that now we do so? He hasn't given up, but it's clear that Net Magic isn't going to do the trick all by itself.
I personally think the book does not always give full credit to the distance we've come since before the Net. For example, in the pre-Net days, it was difficult to gather information about something as straightforward as the candidates' positions on issues. You'd get a one-page position paper, perhaps, and only on a limited numbed of topics. Now the amount of detail provided is remarkable, and even more so is the ability to explore those positions further, and engage with others about them. Fact-checking by amateurs and professional has become routine rather than rare. We are more engaged in political discussions than ever before, although it is certainly also the case that those discussions can turn into competitive bludgeoning sessions. Micah is of course aware of all this, but perhaps underplays the ways politics has changed in favor of pointing out ways it has not or has changed for the worse.
But that's not a consequential difference, for The Big Disconnect will have its greatest impact on those who, like Micah, have had much of their hope and enthusiasm about the Net trampled out of them. People like them -- like us -- already know the positive side of the story. We now need an honest, frank, fact-based, non-histrionic assessment of the hole we are in that so far the Internet is not helping us climb out of.
This book is essential for those who believe the Net still has the power to transform democracy. We can't get there without the type of clarity and commitment The Big Disconnect demonstrates.
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