Texas's Right Roots
BY Nancy Scola | Monday, May 9 2011
Technology forced the Texas state Senate into bypassing a two-thirds majority requirement in passing budget legislation last week, argues the Austin Statesman's Jason Embry. Especially on the Republican side of things, electeds are tethered in real-time to the conservative grassroots, and that shapes how they're voting on things day in and day out:
Ogden's failure to get two-thirds support points to just how much political communication has changed. Voters no longer have to rely on their local newspapers and state-funded newsletters from politicians to know what's happening at the Capitol. Politicians can no longer just go back to their districts and explain to their constituents or local reporters why they voted a certain way. They have lost control of the message.
No, the Internet isn't new. But professional political operatives' use of it in Texas has become much more effective. They monitor the Legislature and then, through blogs, Facebook or old-fashioned email, blast their thoughts across the state in a matter of minutes. In real time, they can reach thousands during a session or campaign.
"Democratic operatives don't have as sophisticated a network to communicate with the grass roots as Republicans do in Texas," writes Embry, but they have their own checks, in the form of a handful of big Democratic donors. The rest is here.