A New Kind Of Identity Politics?

Caption: A publicity shot from Darcy Burner's last campaign. I'm too apathetic about her latest to find a new one.

image credit: www.darcyburner.com

This message came in several of my e-mail inboxes from Darcy Burner's campaign today:

Congress has lots of doctors.
Congress has lots of lawyers.

You know what Congress doesn’t have lots of? Geeks!

So when they consider legislation affecting the Internet they get it wrong – and defend themselves by saying, “I’m not a nerd.”

It's time to change that! Will you help by contributing to my campaign?

The Internet is the most important invention of the last 50 years. It has increased the transparency of government; made it possible for grassroots donors to bind together and change campaigns nationwide; and was used to organize the Arab Spring.

Over the last couple weeks, Congress has been considering legislation that would destroy the open Internet. It would allow anyone holding a copyright to say that a site – even just a commenter – infringed on their copyright – and the domain name of the site would be revoked without due process.

I've already explained my view of identity politics, but I think there is something to be said for more diversity in the career paths people take to get to Congress. It would be nice to have some technology professionals there (a category that includes engineers), as well as a few tradespeople. Better yet, how about a few people who are unemployed? If there's one group of people who are getting a look at America's future, it's the folks who are already on the unemployment rolls.

So I have mixed emotions about this.

Still, in interest of further derailing a conversation about intellectual property rights that is never going to happen, I'd like to let the Burner campaign see how their front page looks to me:

Image credit: Screenshot by Cujo359

So, one nerd to another, how about making use of that NOSCRIPT tag, eh? Your geek cred isn't looking too shiny at the moment.

Thanks to things like this, I'm largely over my Darcy Burner crush. On the day Congress passed the defense authorization that effectively eliminated habeas corpus for federal agencies, I got an e-mail from her office with some platitudes about thanking veterans. I see nothing about that event on her issues page. She was plenty outspoken about Republican malfeasance back in the good old days. Unfortunately, Ms. Burner has proved to be another progressive politician who is good at avoiding issues that are troublesome for the Democratic Party. We have plenty like that already. What we need are progressives who will make trouble.

If I happen to end up in Darcy Burner's congressional district, I'll vote for her. When it comes to spending time and money getting her elected, however, I'm sure I can find better things to do.