Joel Kotkin Writes another Home Run Piece

Joel Kotkin has a piece appearing in Forbes called, "The Triumph of the Creative Class".  In the piece, Kotkin deftly explains the implications of an Obama Presidency as our economic and cultural leadership has shunned a more conservative industrial economy in favor of a more liberal brain based society.

The term "creative class" was popularized by former George Mason professor Richard Florida, who used it to describe those with both brainy business acumen and a very liberal cultural agenda borrowed from the bohemians of the '60s.

I swear that Kotkin must have accessed the part of my brain remotely that stores my "favorite words and phrases list":

Today the traditional business leadership, like their Republican allies, present a spectacle of utter disarray. The commercial banks have been effectively nationalized. Many traditional manufacturers, notably automakers, also yearn to suck on the federal teat. Reduced to supplicants, these companies have surrendered their standing as independent players. At the same time, the traditional energy companies, long the whipping boys of Congressional Democrats, will be fully occupied trying to survive the onslaught of anti-carbon regulations now all but inevitable.

The article is a telling and realistic analysis of where we're headed and how lost the Republican party is for now.  Today someone pointed out a website from the Republican challenger to an incumbent Senator in a blog post.  Can't find the link but will if my fellow Des Moines'ian chimes in to tell me who it was. 

The commentary that followed was tragically true and I paraphrase:  OMG.  This website looks like a student project from the nineties.  There was a link to a blog on the site.  Last update:  Early September.  There were a few YouTube videos but they were canned political speak.  Unreal. 

The creative class social liberals "get it" with regard to leveraging their economic power and their online power.  I was the FIRST to sign up for Obama's "Text Message alert to be the first to know who his VP pick was".

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Comments

[Joshua Stewardson]

The moment I read "This website looks like a student project from the nineties" there was no doubt in my mind what website you were thinking of:
http://www.christopherreed2008.com/

I know because in the nineties, when I was in grade 9, I did a website quite similar to it. :) The website was seriously the primary reason we didn't vote for him.

[Michael Libbie]

Excellent eye! You know, this is much deeper than politics. Many, many hard core "R"'s that I know and work with and for have NO idea about social media, the power of the web and worse have ZERO plans to learn and make it work for them And, that, my friend...is the base of the party. It may take decades to overturn this mindset.