(Originally published at Greater Democracy)

I slept last night in a good hotel

I went shopping today for jewels

Thus starts Joni Mitchell’s song, For Free. She goes on to contrast this experience with a street musician,

Across the street he stood

And he played real good

On his clarinet, for free

As I drove off to work on the DeStefano campaign, I heard news about a gubernatorial candidate in neighboring New York State. Eliot Spitzer announced today that Sony/BMG has “agreed today to stop providing lavish gifts, free trips and other giveaways in exchange for airtime for its artists on radio stations” according to a New York Times article.

All of this provided an interesting contrast to Falcon Ridge, a folk music festival I attend every summer. Some of my favorite musicians perform there regularly, such as The Kennedys. They present the other side of the musical equation. Sony/BMG may have to pay millions to get people to listen to J. Lo, but people who love music make pilgrimages to camp out in the hot sun to listen to groups like The Kennedys.

We got there early so we would have a good place to camp. As we waited for the festival to start, a group I hadn’t heard of, Red Molly warmed up at the dance stage. They were playing real good, for free. I like their music and I bought an EP. I liked the way the marketed themselves. They had a good time playing for a small group of people that gathered round, no payola, just good fun music.

What does this have to do with Greater Democracy? Everything. We always talk about Post Broadcast politics here, about politics of the heart, not of the paymaster, politics from the edges where everyone is involved instead of politics of the controlled message from the source.

A hundred years ago, John Philip Sousa predicted that recordings would bring about the death of music. No longer would people gather to make music. Instead, we would just have recordings. We got pretty close. Everyone has their iPods now and can download what they want. People don’t make music as often as they used to. Or do they?

Perhaps the same applies to politics in the age of the broadcast soundbyte: People don’t need to think critically anymore. Instead, they can just hear what the television networks think is important in a thirty second spot.

Nobody stopped to hear him

Though he played so sweet and high

They knew he had never

Been on their T.V.

So they passed his music by

But Falcon Ridge reminds me that people don’t want to sit there passively, they want to be involved, they want to clap their hands, sing and dance. As Emma tells us, If I can't dance I don't want to be in your revolution. This evening, before I try to catch up on my sleep, I went to a local tavern to meet with friends who want to fight the abuses of the extreme right wing. Just like Falcon Ridge, it is a chance to get together with friends, to talk, to be active participants and not just passive receptors.

Will John DeStefano, Deval Patrick, or Eliot Spitzer run campaigns that end the political payola and returns politics to the people? I hope so, and I’ll do what I can to help them or others put aside the broadcast politics of payola and pick up a post broadcast peoples politics of participation. You wanna join me?