T@P Netroots activists are liberal firebrands? Tell that to Sherrod Brown.

[Mass]

The best analysis of blogs and politics I have read in a long time. (This does not concern those who post here and have blogs, but people like kos, DU, myDD, ...)

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10642

Net Effects


By Ezra Klein
Issue Date: 12.20.05

It’s not exactly rare to see the blogosphere in an uproar. But the recent row between supporters of Paul Hackett and backers of Representative Sherrod Brown, who are vying for the Democratic nomination for senator from Ohio, was a bit odder than most. In this fight, the “netroots,” the term for the blogosphere and the online activists who populate it, has come out against a committed liberal and natural ally in favor of a brash Iraq War veteran with a more conservative bent and a paltry political record.

...

A quick rundown of candidates they’ve thrown significant support to illuminates the point: Howard Dean, a free-trading budget hawk who had the virtue of appearing ready to throw a punch at Joe Lieberman or George W. Bush, whoever stepped in range first; Wesley Clark, a retired four-star general with no domestic record to speak of and an unclear stance on the war; Stephanie Herseth, a South Dakotan representative with a lukewarm 55 percent from Americans for Democratic Action; Brad Carson, a candidate for Senate in Oklahoma with an anti-choice, pro-business voting record. The list continues. What these candidates have in common is not a commitment to liberal policy making but an assumed ability to win and a demonstrated willingness to fight. There are no ideological litmus tests here, only pugilistic ones.

The reality of this was best expressed to me by Bob Brigham, an outspoken Hackett supporter, prominent blogger, and key Hackett adviser during the special election campaign. When I asked him about Hackett’s reversal, now favoring withdrawal from Iraq, Brigham mocked the argument as “policy bullshit!” What matters, in other words, is not the policy but the image. And if Hackett appeared a critic of the war, in this age of media candidacies, that -- not his policy preferences on the issue -- is what counts.

...
Blogs are getting ever more powerful. As fund-raisers, as kingmakers, and as opinion leaders, they’re being taken seriously. But at some point Democrats will win, and the netroots, after the victory glow wears off, will have a very tough question to answer: What, exactly, do they believe? And, more importantly, what do they want?

[JI7]

1. great read

and i think that's why people like Kerry, and now Sherrod Brown will probably end up winning the primary. because the actual voters include those who aren't a part of this blogosphere or view things differently. they vote on the issues. i'm sure there are many anti free trade types who will easily go for Brown as they went for Gephardt just based on their voting records alone. while Kerry did win the vote of union members. Gephardt won a large majority of those whose most important issue was opposition to free trade.

(a bit off topic

and about SHerrod Brown. i read part of a transcript of some event he held. i think this was a question on foreign policy.

someone told him that he was saying the same thing Kerry said during the campaign about those things, and why he thinks it will work now if it didn't work for Kerry in Ohio. Brown response was something about how people have now seen that Cheney Bush etc can't be trusted so the situation is a little different now and favorable to him)

[ray of light]

2. Frankly, I think it's awfully disappointing

That Hackett and Sherrod are running for the same position in Ohio. I'd like them to 'spread the wealth' before they bicker for the same job. The fact is--you need 'progressives' (and I put that in quotes since Hackett is esssentially a conservative democrat We call that Democrat-Republican here) in all offices to take back the country. And that includes local legislatures too!

[WildEyedLiberal]

3. I read that and it was awesome

The blogosphere needs to figure out WTF it wants before it can start demanding that it has influence. "Fighting Republicans" is a pretty shitty platform and says nothing about the direction they'd actually like to take the country in.

[paulk]

4. thanks for posting this

I've sent it out to my "mailing list" - it's something we've been talking a lot about around our house - the whole "netroots" thing. Who are these people? Are they representative of anything?

[Mass]

5. In the same spirit, it is interesting how Joshua Franks' latest article

attacking Murtha as not being pure enough (he actually makes a few good points or at least points that are consistent with what he usually writes) has been ignored on DU. Typically, his articles are posted two or three times, sometimes more when they attack Kerry.