Tara Sue Reaches Critical Mass

Some weeks back, I wrote about Tara Sue Grubb, a North Carolina woman running a very long-shot campaign for Congress. You can read the weblog of her campaign here. You have to admire her spunk.

Well, her story has been picked up by Slashdot, a website for tech-heads and those interested in computer-related issues. Their concern? Tara Sue is running against Howard Coble, one of the Congressional sponsors of a bill that would grant sweeping powers of control and invasion to software makers and their parent companies.

Tara Sue has suddenly found her constituency going from a small rural district to a virtual one that encompasses some of the most successful and well-connected computer and Internet professionals in America. She's still likely to lose, but she's pointing the way to a new kind of campaign -- a web-driven one.

This is relevant to Tennessee because we are also seeing that revolution happen here. The Income Tax War, had it occured only a few years earlier, would have been lost without two serious advantages: the Internet and talk radio. Talk show hosts like Steve Gill and Phil Valentine took up the podium; Tax Free Tennessee and Tennessee Tax Revolt important information to every corner of the State. They uncovered truths no newspaper would have let you see and pulled it all together in an easy-to-find place. It was these two factors that welded together the force that descended on Capitol Hill, that is shaking up the electoral landscape as we speak.

For now, we have the advantage. We need to press it before the Powers That Be either take control or learn to use it themselves.

Until next time.