Politico is carrying a story today titled: “Arlen Specter faces fury: ‘You work for us!’” The image above is from Politico’s 4:20 minute video coverage of a town hall today in which Senator Specter was confronted with questions, boos, and jeers. The supporters of the Democrats’ health care proposals have called these protesters “Astroturf,” a term meaning they are false grassroots.
As I have described at Howard Rheingold’s SmartMobs.com, where I am on the blogging team, I have a different take on what is happening: the protests are stirred by the golden swamp effect (a pretty standard network effect). The gathering of the protesters is a synergy from the spontaneous networking among citizens who have found a common ground and whose connections are quickly being established by exchanging email addresses and phone numbers. For further discussion and background, both Howard and I have quoted an article by Clay Spinuzzi exploring community organizing, astroturfing, and the newer phenomenon of swarming.
What I find most interesting is that for all the puffing about the Obama machine having used the internet, they are not now in a position to activate a network. What they have instead is more like an electronic mailing list where messages can go back and forth to and from the White House and that is about all. It took the anger of those who do not want more spending and healthcare to activate a multidirectional network that produces swarming. The best I suspect the White House can do is send messages asking people on their list to go to townhalls. In the process, the White House will also endure the blowback of not so friendly responses to a publicized White House email address such as flag@whitehouse.gov.
