This piece originally appeared at joshua.trevino.at.

It came as no surprise to see DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas and DailyKos editor Susan Gardner in the pages of the Washington Post on August 11th, trumpeting “How We Won the Mainstream.” The hard-left “netroots” are ascendant these days, having moved from an aggrieved minority to the self-proclaimed vanguard of the American majority. That majority is now in broad concurrence with the “netroots” on two cardinal points: it dislikes President George W. Bush, and by extension the Republican Party; and it wishes for an end of some sort to the war in Iraq. In this light, the Post is only following good editorial practice in giving column space to a major voice of the day. Left unexamined is whether the “netroots’” claim to representing, much less winning, the American mainstream, is true.

This piece originally appeared at joshua.trevino.at.

I didn't want an iPhone -- though I had fun with its launch day 48 hours back -- because I haven't the slightest desire to interact with AT&T's inferior network, and because I'm pretty sure that iPhone 2.0 or 3.0 will have some extraordinary feaures and, more important, be unlocked. But I did want an invite to Pownce. I wanted one badly enough to spend a great deal of time insulting Scoble, annoying Susan Wu with mercenary inquiries, and posting public pleas. Partly this was because I'm a sucker for web 2.0 fads, but mostly it was because I'd been doing some thinking about the last such fad, namely, Twitter.

This piece originally appeared at joshua.trevino.at.

It is an unending source of wonder that partisans of a thing almost always believe that the thing would be made immeasurably better with the involvement of the government. No experience with a state bureaucracy appears to dissuade them; no visit to the DMV imparts any lesson of the inherent tendencies of statist organization; no dismay at the failures of government in one area leads them to rational prediction of government's success in another. The perceived failures of the market, runs the reasoning, will be eliminated if the market itself is eliminated: and of course any meaningful incentive to improve is eliminated along with that market. So we see all manner of counterintuitive projects, from government-run health care to government-run airport security -- and now government-run internet is on the table, in the minds of those who care deeply about its potential and future.

This piece originally appeared at joshua.trevino.at.

A truly remarkable series of events has transpired in the past few days, and we are faced with a split in the online right that is both portentious -- and necessary. Before we get into the details of the division, we must step back a bit and ask why we participate in the online political sphere at all. Some few do it out of purely perverse motivations, it's true, but most do it for one of two reasons: to advance a movement, or to advance a party. These are not the same things, and each needs the other -- but it does not follow from this that they are equally important. The only Marx quote I approve of is paraphrased, “Philosophers seek to explain the world; the point is to change it.” This is well and good for motivating on-the-ground activism (in a Marxian context, with Molotov cocktails and Ninth Circuit suits), but it ignores the necessity of the explanation preceding and motivating the change. A structure is not an end alone; an apparatus that exists to promote the apparatus is worthless to all but itself; there must be content before the container becomes worth carrying. From this follows the obvious: that the Republican Party is worthwhile only inasmuch as it reflects and promotes conservative ideals, aims, and principles.

It's an honor to be invited by David All to TechRepublican. Following is a piece originally posted at joshua.trevino.at.

Preface: left and right online.

The challenge of building the right wing, conservative, and/or libertarian movement online is in many ways less daunting than that faced by its opposites on the left. This is paradoxical on its face, as the left has done a vastly better job of taking advantage of the possibilities and potential of online activism. It bears repeating that the most popular online community in the world is the left-wing Democratic Party organ, DailyKos. With estimated advertising revenues of at least $800,000 annually, to say nothing of informal and unreported income, the site is a powerhouse of fundraising and activism that, with the rest of the left-wing blogosphere, exerts an increasing influence on the ideology and tactics of the Democratic apparatus. There is nothing remotely like this community of online activism on the right: whereas the left-wing blogs hector and pressure their party to come into line with them, the relationship between the right-wing blogs and the Republican Party is far more one of dominance by the latter over the former. Online communities of the right are simply smaller, less organized, and less willing to alienate the party.