Sincere Republican voters, led by Rep. John Culberson (R Texas), professional campaign operatives and right wing geeks initiated a category on twitter called #dontgo to urge Congress to consider the Bush domestic (offshore and ANWR) drilling proposals. The movement has legs and is at this moment generating more conversation on the messaging service than Freddie Mac, Beijing , the iPhone, and Paris Hilton. Tweets including the #dontgo tag are sortable by the search services that add some order and continuity to an otherwise incomprehensible mixture of messages out of twitter. Summize.com (recently purchased by twitter) and twemes.com are two places that the fire hose flow of “tweets’ can be throttled down and sorted.
#dontgo has a single issue focus: energy policy. It has a simplistic message: Congress should permit domestic drilling and oil shale exploitation right now. “Drill here, drill now,” as they say. Online support for the sentiment is so great that they have almost sold out of t-shirts.
The #dontgo movement has a website too, and they are looking for bloggers to staff it and provide continuous fresh content. The movement echoes “MoveOn.org”. It has begun on the net with a single issue focus and it has attracted a core of sincere backers. In the nineties, while the Republican controlled Congress made political hay out of President Clinton’s personal embarrassment, MoveOn emerged as a grassroots movement to counter Congress and urge them to Move On from the President’s peccadilloes to more important matters. That organization had little effect then on the obstructionists in Congress, but it had staying power. It remains a strong voice from the left and a potent fund raising machine.
As of now, the #dontgo Republicans are being encountered (and gamed) by the opposition. Nancy Pelosi brought light to the heated debate with her letter yesterday to the House Republican leadership. She said,
America uses nearly a quarter of the world’s oil, but sits atop less than 3 percent of the world’s reserves. According to the Bush Administration’s own Energy Department, if we repealed the offshore drilling ban today, oil and gas production would not begin there until 2024, and impact on prices before 2024 would be “insignificant.” We cannot drill our way out of this problem.
It remains to be seen how well twitter, the online buzz bubbler, can be used to organize and communicate in the political arena. It sure works for iPhone sales and user support!
Technorati Tags: twitter, tweets, #dontgo, baby please don’t go, stay to indict Rove
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