A commenter named Jackie on Howard Dean's blog explains where things went wrong.
This whole "Phases" concept reminds me of an old episode of South Park, where gnomes steal people's underpants. The kids catch them and, naturally, want to know why their underpants are being stolen. The gnomes explain:Sounds like the dotcom bubble, as many others have observed. Heck, maybe this connection to South Park isn't new at all, but it made me laugh.Phase I: Steal Underpants
Phase II: ???
Phase III: Profit.I feel like we're much the same...
Phase I: Create enormous grassroots network with energy, passion and progressive ideals
Phase II: ???
Phase III: real changePhase I seems like a step in the right direction, but nobody seems to know how the heck to connect the dots to get to phase III, and it's clear that there's something special needed to get from one to the other.
I always thought South Park should have done a followup episode on "Underpants Gnomes in the Internet Age":
Phase I: Collect underpants
Phase II: www.underpants.com
Phase III: ???
Phase IV: Profit
I think that explains the economics of the late 1990s in a nutshell.
KH: I feel sure this meme has been explored 100,000 times on the internet already, but it's new to me, and I think you're exactly right.
Here's one take on the Committed Left's thinking:
Phase I: Create enormous grassroots network with energy, passion and progressive ideals
Phase II: Americans will suddenly realize they need to put people with giant puppets and really good dope into positions of power.
Phase III: real change
Phase IV: We finally get the good-looking women who've always thought we were such losers.
I made a similar analogy to the Real Conservatives who think it's a smart idea to let GWB lose in November since he's not a Real Conservative.