Netroots Needs To Get Over Itself
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I’ll write more about this later, but this wailing from the netroots about Senator Clinton’s campaign not sufficiently kissing their collective asses is distasteful. The downside of the 2006 election is that a lot of people in the “netroots” think the whole thing was thanks to them and as a result are convinced their poop doesn’t stink. They sound now just as bad as the supposed insiders they loathe so much. As I said, more later, but I just needed to point this out now.
16 Responses to “Netroots Needs To Get Over Itself”
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The views on this site are mine and mine alone, and do not reflect the views of my employer, Media Matters for America
© 2000-2011 Oliver Willis
but I want to be part of the vanguard!
/verucasalt
Oliver – I think you’re exaggerating a bit here. The thrust of the post was the general MSM reportage that Hillary was in the lead for support among the netroots, which is quite plainly not the case. I read that as a condemnation of MSM distortion more than a plea for ass-kissing.
The “netroots” need to tatoo this around their navels:
The Internet is not real life.
Why oh why should they get over themselves? Any more than, say, you getting over yourself?
The article you’ve linked bears no relationship to the issue you are describing.
On the other hand, your criticism is pretty far off-base. As an example, I would point out that I had no particular interest in senate races in Virginia, Ohio, Connecticut or Missouri before learning about some fine candidates through netroots activism. I would hardly say that I became a big donor, but my contribution – along with the many people like me – certainly might have helped. Sometimes I do find your contrarian positions to be lacking in much substance.
To both of you, the idea that a candidate should bow at your table because you’ve got a freaking blog is as horrible as candidates sucking up to big donors and corporations. A lot of these guys peddling the netroots game as an alternative to the stuffy old boys network are just recreating the same nonsense in the blogosphere. I’m not purposely taking a contrarian position but when I see someone doing exactly the same activity they’ve previously formed virtual lynch mobs over, I’ve got to throw in my two cents.
What destroyed the Democratic party in the ’80s, ’90s and beyond was overwhelming fealty to interest group politics – is it any better that instead of ticking off a spot for women’s groups, black groups, labor, etc. that now pols are supposed to have to satiate the bloggers? That’s exactly what folks like Markos and Stoller and Bowers are pushing now and it reeks.
Um. That was Kos, who is quite full of himself. Quite rightly so, I might add. However, he is Kos, not the ‘netroots’.
Oliver,
They are recreating the pattern because that is how the world works.
Politicians in democracies try to build alliances with identifiable political groupings (a lot more feasable and efficient than rounding up 100million voters one by one).
The politicians and the groups negotiate over the transaction – support for my issues gets you our votes. Such is the dynamic in both political parties – always has been, always will be.
Same thing in third parties, only less noticiable because they are small enough, often, to appeal only to a relatively homogenous group.
Kos does not just have a freakin blog. His site is a community with half a million politically active visitors per day. An appealing forum for politicians to strut their stuff.
They would be insane not to use that in order to press aggressively for support from the pols for thier positions.
If you dont like the game of politics, maybe you should try baseball or something, but dont blame people for playing aggressively by the rules.
I’m fine with the game being played, but don’t say you aren’t playing the game when you’ve got your piece on the board. That’s my point. I’m far from a Pollyanna on this issue, in fact I’m far more cynical and vicious than the average Dem.
“… I’m far more cynical and vicious than the average Dem.”
Too easy.
But anyone else is welcome to.
Netroots. Trying so very hard to convince themselves that they matter.
That’s not to say that they don’t matter, just that they don’t matter very much.
BarryO – if oliver took himself seriously, do you think he’d wear THAT tie online?
atcha Oliver
brashieel – yeah, just like EVERY OTHER EXERCISE IN LIFE – we try to convince outselves we matter.
we – you and I – do not matter one whit.
Like any good “revolution” or whatever. The hell raising is great to bring about change, but eventually the hellraisers become the establishment and the cycle repeats with a new round. I think the “netroots” definately played a roll, kinda like lighter fluid in the middle of a forrest fire. Maybe they sped things up , but the forrest was due anyway the corruption and the war were the drought conditions and the lightening bolt.
Basically what I am trying to say is that no one group of people is singularly responsible for what happened in November. The universe aligned. People were universally pissed off. And the Democratic party was in a position to acutally take advantage of it. If it didn’t happen in this cycle, it would have happened in the next. With the exception of the the Virginia Senate Race. Pre- Youtube that would have never have been the story that it was.
I think the thing that is eventually going to spinter the netrootopia, if it already hasn’t happened is as people year for a seat at the table, they are going to piss of the people who don’t get a seat, or the people whose seats they take. and then they’ll be a whole other group of blogs reporting on the tomfoolery.
That. Is. All.
Tester in Montana, Brown in Ohio, Webb in Virginia and the political demise of Richard Pombo, among a few other congressional rats, give the netroots SOME bragging rights. All this angst about the primaries this early is as bad as seeing Santa Claus in September.
mdhåtter- I can’t tell if you’re arguing or agreeing with me.
Oh, and I agree that people are tracking the primaries way too early.