Almost 16 years ago, Zephyr Teachout wrote an article for the pre-pre-cursor to this site, PersonalDemocracy.com, titled, “Come Together Now: The Internet’s Unlit Fuse.” Having just finished two intense years in the trenches of Democratic presidential campaigning, first as a digital organizing trail-cutter for Vermont Governor Howard Dean, and then for Democratic nominee John Kerry, Teachout identified a fundamental weakness in how political campaigns were using the Internet to involve people in the election. After noting how much money was raised online and then spent on old-fashioned TV ads, and how effectively some groups, like the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, had used the Internet to move their message, she wrote,
“Never before in history have we had a tool that...
