Vote. Com : How Big-Money Lobbyists and the Media Are Losing Their Influence, and the Internet Is Giving Power Back to the People

by Morris, Dick

• ISBN13: 9781580631631
• ISBN10: 1580631630
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-09-16
• Publisher: Renaissance Books

Summary

Tear up what you know or think you know about politics. It's all changing. For thirty years the media dominated public affairs. Journalists, reporters, and pundits shaped the way we received information. They controlled what we knew about issues and politicians, and consequently influenced what and how we thought of them. Inside information and the threat of scandal was their most potent weapon. But now their weapon has lost its edge.

Author Biography

Dick Morris, who had a twenty-year relationship with President Bill Clinton, is currently under contract to Fox television as a political commentator and writes a weekly column for the New York Post

Table of Contents

Introduction	xvii
PART ONE HOW THE INTERNET IS TAKING OVER	xxv
Vox Populi in Cyberspace	27	(10)
The Incredible Shrinking Congress	37	(10)
Virtual Elections	47	(6)
The Diminishing Importance of Money In Elections	53	(10)
The New Voters---The X Generation Asserts its Power	63	(20)
How The Internet Will Change the Media	83	(10)
Campaigning to Win the Fifth Estate	93	(24)
The Voluntary Campaign	94	(3)
Drawing the Voter In	97	(5)
Targeting with Lasers	102	(2)
The Importance of Interactivity	104	(5)
E-Mailing to Victory	109	(2)
A Flight into the Future	111	(6)
The End of Polling	117	(8)
The Weakening of Political Parties	125	(6)
The Lobbyists Meet Democracy	131	(10)
State and Local Politics	141	(8)
How the Internet Will Change the Justice System	149	(8)
International Democracy	157	(6)
The Empire Strikes Back	163	(4)
The Inevitable Backlash	167	(4)
PART TWO LESSONS OF THE UNIMPEACHMENT --- HOW THE FOURTH ESTATE BLEW IT	171	(64)
How the Fourth Estate Took Power	173	(6)
The Decline of the Fourth Estate	179	(10)
The Death of Scandal	189	(18)
Direct Communication Wins Out	207	(10)
How the Politicians Blew it --- Partisanship Made Americans Sick	217	(10)
Congress is Losing its Power	227	(8)
Epilogue	235