Dear Friend & Reader:
Forgive me in advance for entitling myself to this rant. I am still trying to wrap myself around what’s unfolding before our eyes.
A bit of history: I’ve been blogging in the progressive (aka “liberal”) blogosphere since 2003 for political campaigns and progressive advocacy sites, all of which led me right here and our community. When I started blogging, there were clear lines of political demarcation: Democrats and Republicans.
Over the course of the decade, lines evolved, branching into further-left progressive Democrats like Howard Dean and far right neoconservative Republicans like Dick Cheney. Many people being uncomfortable with the political extremes, and trying to find the niche between, centrist Blue Dog Democrats such as Jim Webb of Virginia began to win elections. The Blue Dogs — Democrats from states with a large conservative constituency — were on par with traditionally moderate Republicans like Arlen Specter (who is now a Democrat). They’re socially progressive, fiscally conservative, and strong on defense. Blue Dog Democrats scored victories to make it into Congress while Bush was in his final two years in office, a signal the country was itching for change.
The progressive blogosphere has been the voting bloc leaning leftward for political change the past ten years. Active and aggressive. Working to get Democrats–liberals and blue dogs alike into Congress to combat the Republican bloc equally as aggressive, that voted with discipline down party lines. Progressives chipped away at the bloc like Papillon from his cage on Devil’s Island. By and large, with the help of Republicans getting caught hitting on Congressional pages and soliciting sex in airport bathrooms and an increasingly unpopular President, Mr. Bush, we came to answer the solid Republican block with the internet as our battering ram. As we had hoped, we built a Democratic majority in Congress and the Senate and a Democrat in the White House. The progressives won. Or so we thought.