If you haven't been to DKos yet today, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) has posted an invitation for Kossacks to give her ideas on how to revamp her website.

This is quite an extraordinary development. So far, we have seen very little involvement on the web by any politician. Oh, we know Dean gets it to an extent -- though one might argue that the various off-shoot efforts have demonstrated much more potential -- and Wesley Clark has a PAC site that strives for interactivity. And we know that several politicians have learned the value of going hat in hand to Kos for support and thank yous. On the surface, anyway, it all seems very sincere to me.

But there always seems to be a gap in understanding, where people enmeshed in the Establishment (politocracy, corporatocracy, mediatocracy) really don't "get" the internet, and especially blogging. This is why I find Rep. Slaighter's invitation quite extraordinary.

Maybe it's a personal bias -- after all, here I'd written 5 or 6 letters to politicians over the years up until now, and received no response whatsoever, and suddenly I write this post on BlogSisters and she is the first and only commenter to respond. She noticed me! And I didn't even have to give money first! But I gotta say, there's something likeable about a politician who actually pays attention to the blogs -- even if only on the issues she's championing.

And so here she has opened up her web redevelopment process to "the bloggers." To us it makes sense. Of course you ask the bloggers! Why go to anybody but the experts! Yet that attitude is sadly lacking inside the Beltway, where they are wont to be the ones to do the telling -- they are accustomed to telling us what to do (give money, mostly).

No, it's not a paradigm shift, just one more grain shifting in the sands. Eventually I think a very huge part of politics will be done online. It's just too effective and easy and affordable of a tool to ignore. And it will change the political dynamic not just a bit. Unlike the highly paid, jaded, cynical political consultants, "the bloggers" are not in it for the money, and unlike the lobbyists hobnobbing in the halls of power, "the bloggers" are not a special interest. "The bloggers" are simply We the People finding our own voices. And if our representatives are going to actually represent us -- and if we manage to protect and secure our voting power in this republic (which is another matter altogether) -- it only makes sense for them to interact with us and drive the agenda more by the people's interests rather than special interests, hearing all of our voices and not only the loudest and most persistent.

I suspect this eventual paradigm shift will affect all areas of the political spectrum, too, not just progressives. It's going to change everything. That's what Dean is up against in the Democratic Party.

The politocracy doesn't like these developments, not one bit. Expect a bumpy ride.

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