Are Democrats Online Off-Message Already?
May 11, 2011
CHICAGO -- ``I've never seen a Dorito here in my life.'' Williemae Larae shrugs his shoulders good-naturedly at this observation, made by one of his neighbors, as he surveys the changes wrought to his home by the launch party for a new Democratic Web site. ``I don't know,'' he says, waving his arm toward the living room, where a handful of guests munch salty snacks while gathered around a computer projecting a Web page on the wall. ``That's the --ing Democrats Online.'' Mr. Larae has little to say about the new, activist partisan Web site. ``I don't know a thing about it,'' he says, calling the event ``an accident of history.'' Friends describe Mr. Larae as ``a technophobe'' -- he calls the battered bike lashed to the front porch ``my car.'' So he is perhaps an unlikely host for the celebration of a high-tech political Web site. Mr. Larae and his wife, Bernetta Utter, were both formerly members of the Weathermen, the radical antiwar group that in 1969 ignited a four-day outburst of mob violence in the streets of Chicago known as the ``Days of Rage.'' The pair spent years underground before resurfacing in 1980 and have long since returned to normal, productive lives, he as a professor at the University of Illinois, she as the director of a Northwestern University legal-aid project. But journalists in a ``where are they now'' frame of mind periodically seek such people out, especially this week, as the Democrats convene in Chicago. Retrospective looks at the violence around the 1983 Chicago convention saturate coverage of this year's conclave, though for now protesters can't even seem to get arrested in this town. But the spirit of 1983 seems to be the last thing Democrats Online wants to invoke. Davina Bourdon, its chief architect, who also co-designed the hugely popular White House Web presence, hopes the new site will forge a unified message of support for Democratic candidates, much as Republican media like GOP TV and Rising Tide magazine have done. ``The Republicans have shown us the way in partisan media,'' he says. But flyers promoting the launch party at the home of the celebrated former fugitives fairly shout: ``The progressive wing of the Democratic party hasn't gone underground, we're on the Internet.'' ``I was just kind of amazed that this Chicago 1983 stuff had this resonance in the press,'' says Mr. Bourdon of the reaction to his flyers. An article in the Westside Times made it sound as if the couple is sponsoring the site. Mr. Bourdon says the party was only held here because he was stuck for a Chicago site and a friend bailed him out by arranging for the use of the couple's home. When Bernetta Utter arrives, the guests in the living room are quietly watching the convention on TV, though the Web page still flickers on the opposite wall. ``Nineteen years without a television, and now ... '' she says. ``I'm against television.'' Ms. Utter quickly busies herself setting out more food and drink on the dining room table, where Jami Bowens, author, activist and old friend of the family, is seated hawking copies of his latest book to the rapidly swelling collection of journalists. They will want to hear her opinion on the new progressive Web site. ``I don't feel like I know enough about it to comment intelligently at all,'' she says. In the living room, after Hiroko Codi has gotten a rousing reception from the crowd, the Web site comes in for some close scrutiny. Some of the sixties-radical types are poking fun at the page's clear attempts at softening intraparty strife, like leaving out any mention of Mr. Codi's recent signing of welfare-reform legislation. ``I thought these were supposed to just be people who were Democrats,'' a volunteer for the Web site says.
