Nomination Process Reveals A Fractured America

Who knows if it's the result of campaign weariness, campaign rhetoric or social media technologies ... but today's America seems the most divided that I have seen in my adult lifetime.

The Democratic Party still has no clear nominee (set super-delegates aside for the moment). Significant numbers of supporters (Sen. Clinton, Sen. Obama) on each side would feel disenfranchised should their candidate lose in Denver. So disenfranchised, in fact, that they say (today) that they would vote for the Republican candidate, Sen. John McCain, in November.

The Republican Party seems no less divided, it's just that they aren't hanging their dirty laundry out in public. If the Republicans picked their nominee like the Democrats (no winner-take-all caucuses or primaries), then it's likely they'd not have a winner yet, either. Remember, even with McCain as the presumed nominee (since the other big guns have all dropped out), Rep. Ron Paul took 16 percent of the Pennsylvania vote.

And then there's the disintermediation facilitated by web technologies.

Ah, don't let your eyes glaze over! Disintermediation is a fancy way of saying web technologies help cut out the middleman. This is disruptive to existing institutions, like newspapers (that have lost classified ad sales to eBay and Craig's List). This is disruptive to existing institutions, like software firms (moving from a shrink wrapped product -- Microsoft Word -- to an online and on-demand one -- Google Docs). This is disruptive to existing institutions, like TV producers (YouTube, Amazon UnBox and the iTunes Store have freed millions of TV viewers from the clutches of cable firms).

Why should political parties be immune?

The short answer: they shouldn't be, and they aren't.

Candidates like Sen. Obama and Rep. Paul have done an excellent job of marshaling social media technologies to raise money and generate grassroots support. But the ultimate change might be that these technologies make it so easy ("low cost") to find and connect with people who "think like me." Thus, the technologies enable fragmentation; in this way, social media technologies are the polar opposite of broadcast (one way) media technologies.

Is the two-party system on death's bed? Should it be?