Thinking that is a major part of the problem. It is about politics, not marketing.

New Labour thought it was about marketing, and look what happened. The electorate bought a pup without sufficient opportunity to check it for rotten teeth.

What some political parties lack are some fundamentals:

- a credible & charismatic leader who can engender the support of the internal party network & external audiences through communicating that the party ideology is 1) compelling & resonates with them and 2) perceived as running through the leader like a stick of rock

- employ marketing professionals who can achieve the desired results. Marketing professionals with the requisite skills can sometimes look at the salaries & work hours in the political sphere and decide to work for non political sectors where the salaries can be double the amount

It is, in essence, about good marketing across all mediums

I think that the slightly wider problem is that those that live by the internet can very easily die by the internet.

This whole idea about politics as a movement and so on is surely what Blair did in 1997 isn’t it? Had the internet been bigger in 1997 I imagine New Labour would have done almost exactly the sort of things you are talking about.

Opposition is the easiest business in the world. I think that what you are missing here is the distinction between politics and government. Setting ones self up as a movement type arrangement and ‘selling’ a vision is far harder in power and when you have to respond from a position of incumbency.

The Greens suffer a similar problem. Their message (however much they try to work around it) is that their politics are about reducing consumption. That may well be underpinned by a good case, but it ain’t the stuff of mass-movement.

Starting an internet campaign against something is a far easier proposition than doing that from government.

If Obama comes as a bitter disappointment it will show up the real limitations of movements as a political proposition. How long till the internet talkboard classes sink their fangs into Obama.

And this is the unknown here. Justified or not the internet’s political wing is characterised by the professional malcontent. It is no wonder that political parties are a bit reticent.

What would really improve the quality of comment on the internet is reducing its stricency. Sunny, as you have found out this week the mere mention of the words, ‘Israel/Palestine,’ get people onto the web demanding that Iran start rounding up Jews. Is that the type of environment for your mass movement?

I have tons more links, but I’m just trying to put some sensible words around them. I promise I’ll wrote more on this in coming days.

http://rayyanmirza.wordpress.com/2008/12/11/the-green-party-lacks-a-core-message/

I think the GP’s frontpage should list six ways in which people can improve society themselves, only one of which (or none) involves directly voting for the Green Party.

Thanks for the links, as they’ll be useful for my dissertation: I’m writing it on the role of the internet in Obama’s campaign. Any more would be greatly appreciated!