Matt wants some measurement of organizing?

Here's a simple measure.  Are people who were not previously privileged with the advantages of professional status, wealth or other social capital taking leadership?

While the blogs and Moveon have undoubtedly done a good job of allowing educated, tech-savvy folks who were not active politically to gain important information to take action, those involved in the netroots are overwhelmingly those who were personally empowered in many ways and were mostly looking for coordinated channels to focus their energy-- which Moveon and the blogs provided, which was a good thing.

But what organizing does is move beyond that strata to folks who, for many personal as well as political reasons, have not previously had such socially-advantaged positions and where leadership is an acquired skill.   I had an exchange with Zach Exley a while back on this issue, so I'll cite a few points from there:

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Consumer and safety groups are rightly applauding an agreement by House and Senate lawmakers to move forward a bill which bans lead and most phthalates -- plastic chemicals that can cause developmental disorders -- in most children's products.  The bill, already approved by the U.S. House, will also increase funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, strengthen testing standards, and enhance public access to product safety information.

There is little question that the proliferation of state laws that passed this year banning toxic toys played a key role in industry leaders deciding to make concessions over the bill.   Unfortunately, one key concession that industry demanded, and got, in the negotiations is preemption of new state laws protecting consumer safety.  As industry spokespeople emphasized in their support for the bill:

A single set of national standards was "the framework we were looking for," said Carter Keithley, president of the Toy Industry Association ... E.R. Anderson, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman in Washington, called the legislation "a good bill, in our estimation." She added, "We are very pleased that this bill acknowledges that 50 separate state standards is unworkable and inefficient."

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