The main question that is asked within the first paragraph is,

“Whether the Internet’s potential for enhancing civic engagement also leads to greater participation in democratic politics”.

The answer to this question is yes. There has been a rebirth of civic engagement since people figured out that they could participate online. People are naturally geared to be attracted to things that are convenient and safe. Particularly in this article chat rooms and email are brought up a lot and these are very safe places. People running for places of power may have to put in a little bit of work to obtain someone’s email for instance but for them to email that potential voter is very convenient and almost flattering to that potential voter.

I think the incredible opportunity that the internet provides in regards to networking is the key to its enhancement of civic engagement. A person could be sitting nude in a chair in Switzerland conversing in a chat room with a governor of Texas about upcoming political affairs and other than the thoughts that they are spilling nothing else matters. People no longer have to meet in a public sphere and worry about their image or anything else. I think because of this and the ability for everyone to be connected is reason enough to believe that the internet has had a large impact on civic engagement within politics.