How long have blogs been around now? Quite a few years, I believe? It’s a wonderful thing of course, ordinary people expressing their political views uncensored, musical oracles from all over the world spreading the good word on ancient soul music, easy listening or classical accordion playing. Film buffs finally able to be their own favorite film critic. The point is, partly, that blogs really started to shape the world years ago.

But where are the people who are supposed to shape the world, our elected politicians, in the blogosphere? As far as I can see, they’re nowhere to be found.

It could be that US politicians have seen the light here. I haven’t really looked into that, but, judging from the effort and the money put into their campaigns, which probably far exceed that of entire European party election budgets, not to mention the competent expert panels they’re surrounded by, I would be very surprised if they hadn’t discovered blogs yet.

But in large parts of the world politicians still write in long-hand. And what a strategic blunder that is! Just look at how many people drop by your own more or less insignificant blog every day. Think of the numbers a controversial politician would reach, speaking directly to the people, opening up for comments. His Adsense revenues would be astronomical. That’s not to say I think it’s a very good idea for a politician to put up Adsense on his blog, though…

But how could this kind of openness ever be a mistake? It should be absolutely obvious to anyone with half a brain that this would actually gain them votes. Right?

In 1800-Europe you had political salons where people from the bourgeois gathered to discuss current issues, often with a critical bent towards the ruling authorities. It’s the same thing happening with blogs - the internet is growing into an infinite political salon where everybody has a chance to be heard.

And all this time politicians try to get their views across the old-fashioned way, they participate in panel debates on national television, travel to party meetings, chop a billion trees to print flyers with their photoshopped grins that disgust most of us, and fight endlessly against the traditional media’s standard procedures - the “build ‘em up, tear ‘em down”-strategy, for instance - while the people ever more often turn to their computers to avoid the polemics and get the relevant information they want without any clutter instead.

Not only would it gain politicians to have blogs. I’m also kind of offended by the fact that the people we’ve chosen to represent our views allow themselves not to participate in the debate through channels that most of us know and use by now. It’s arrogant, isn’t it?

It’s partly due to technological ignorance, I’m sure. Many of today’s politicians grew up in times when computers were either totally absent or considered to be mainly for bespectacled tech nerds. And most of them are professional politicians who haven’t actually worked with computers in daily life like most of us. So there’s a distance to the matter - many of them are utterly incompetent on computers. And sometimes you mock what you cannot understand.

I also believe that some politicians consider their intellect too valuable to be spending time in front of a monitor. They consider their time too precious to be spent playing around with a computer. “It’s fun,” they say, “but it’s not real life, is it?” They’re extroverts, they want people to hear their voice - they want to deliver suave speeches and win arguments.

Or maybe it’s just the fact that they’re afraid of being held accountable for the things they write? After all, what is party-political literature? Well-prepared slogans? One-liner promises? Clichés that really doesn’t make any sense? Mushy statements aimed to please the majority? Maybe it just wouldn’t look so good on a blog?

Blogs could be a good way for politicians to actually reflect a little on political issues and to explain where they stand on these issues in public, and not just spend their time simplistically defending or explaining their actions on television. I think it could be a good exercise for them.

Update 8 Feb -07: US politicans do blog! Only not in person, and not very well, it seems.