wherein Obama won the 2008 primaries and the entire progressive movement was destroyed because (he suspects) Obama sunk a lot money into hiring people to post at Daily Kos.

These people need new material.

P.S. Mr. Welsh, bloggers were never the gatekeepers of the progressive movement. They were just fucking bloggers.

P.P.S. Dean's campaign was toast before the Dean Scream. He had just imploded in Iowa because he ran a piss-poor campaign there. Democracy happens away from computers sometimes.

The rest of Welch's article is imaginitive, to put it politely.

If you push the party too much in the direction you desire too quickly, you will destroy yourself along with your party.

And you're playing the part (at the time) of useful idiots to corporate interests.

to fall for bullshit and alarmism like conservative audiences.

To the chagrin of the Jane Hamshers', and her ilk, we are much too sophisticated for their crap. They are as ineffective now as they ever were. Hamsher was smart, she joined forces with Grover Norquist, at least she could associate herself with a winning movement, no matter how vile.

I mean Dick and Dubya's Excellent Adventure went swimmingly, no?

and all Crap Blogs like it.

The more serious, substantive blogs will stand. Spandan & Crew won't last, no matter how much Sensible Centrist money is thrown at them.

oh, you mean they failed to fuck around with the political system the way Foxnews and many astroturf blog sites do? Well, I guess that means they aren't evil.

bus mechanic that has voted straight Democratic ticket since the Eisenhower admin, you realize how little bloggers really mean to the Democratic Mainstream.

Most bloggers seem to have taken their parent's praise too seriously.

Major players in the GOP and conservative sphere supported the Tea Party. There's no such support among the Dems for their base. Hippie-punching is how Dem leaders act macho. Different dynamics.

nt

I would love for that worm to turn. I want the conservatives to have to repudiate any connection to tea party ideals for a generation.

-Laelth

The "Washington Insiders" who just think the world of themselves.

You could place the impulse even earlier frankly - probably has it's roots in the Red Scare. Basically Liberals are seen as being suspicious - of having potential loyalty problems. So one way for Democrats to prove they love America is to bash the commies or the hippies or the left wing extremists.

While some Republican politicians did bash the Birchers back in the day that largely stopped once Reagan became President. So while it's a rite of passage for a serious Democrat to bash the extremists, the Republicans embrace theirs.

Bryant

Many of the well-off have always viewed the less-well-off suspiciously, and the less well-off you are, the more suspicious you are (unless you are an employee, then your poverty is good and you are good, a win-win).

If you allow an economic class system, which we did overtly starting with Raygun, you will have a political class system to follow, and we do.

We are talking about politics which is generally speaking a wealthy mans game. Look at FDR and JFK - two Democratic Icons - neither one were poor. In both cases you had people from the upper class who felt a sense of social responsibility. I think many of the Bloggers may fit into a similar mode - not that they are as wealthy as JFK or FDR but they probably did have a certain amount of free time to dedicate to setting up the blog and writing it.

I used to blog myself (in an odd turn of events been rereading it this last week --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com) and I could only really afford to do so because I had a laid back, but reasonably lucrative job that let me blog at work. If I had been doing something more demanding such that I could only blog in the evenings I don't know that I would have.

Bryant

Suggesting that you can have both or neither, but not just one.

I think you are quite right about bloggers, there is nothing much to explain, you give people with the time and the interest a chance to speak, and they will. And some of them will do it well. And that's a win for all of us.

and are not submissive to authority. They question all authority, especially when it is commercially driven, and can't be bullshitted by Third Way corporate, privatization oriented political marketing. The Third Way are just slightly more conscious than shallow republicans, and their goal, like republicans, is the creation of a global market driven privatized authoritarian plutarchy.

While hippies were screaming about the injustice of the invasion of Iraq, the Third Way was cheerleading for Bush. War means profits.

Simply put, Third Way Democrats engage in hippie punching because...

...The Business of the Third Way is Business.

Progressives don't appear to be adept at connecting with the Democratic Party organization.

The mainstream party ignores progressives, unless they need their votes. THEN they will pay lip service to progressive concerns, but go back to sucking up to corporate interests once they are elected.

Progressives have to get themselves elected to local party offices and to local political offices as Democrats in order to gain power.

Admittedly, the party establishment may be fairly resistant, but mostly progressives don't really want to deal with the grubbiness of local politics.

Howard Dean generated a lot of grassroots support because of his issue agenda, but the fact remains that he was a poor campaigner who wasn't very good at communicating to mass audiences - despite the innovative technological approaches of his volunteers. He lost the primary despite the immense potential of the netroots, not because it was overstated. Moreover, your claims about the relationship between candidate Obama and the netroots are diammetrically opposed to actual history: It was the most intimate, dynamic grassroots campaign not just in American history, but in world history up to that time. Whatever your opinion of the President's performance since then, you can't just rewrite the past to retcon away facts that have become inconvenient to your viewpoint.

Blogging has become less relevant as major media have learned how to counterfeit it and earlier sources have lost credibility by becoming more ideological and corrupt, that much is true as far as I can tell. But I personally still put a lot of stock in it, both as a source of information and as a venue for my own contributions. Where you're getting the idea that "Obama killed blogging" is a complete mystery to me, since his campaign was its zenith.

And I like news aggregators a lot now.

As far as the "Blog Movement" I thlnk that was pulled from someones ass. You know like "Bowel Movement". That was a bunch of people runing amok for the first time with a new technology, and there is ALWAYS a shakeout from those things.

politicians, by Gate Keeper blogs like DKos. They became the 'insiders'. I watched it happen, they banned PROGRESSIVES and cleared the way for the Third Way. But once they sold out and lost most of their progressive writers, the ones who attracted Liberals to the blog BEFORE they were exposed as being part of the status quo, they lost their power.

Who needs to cater to people who are already bought, whether with money or access?

Unfortunately Dkos reigned in all the Progressive energy for a couple of years, and then sidelined it.

Some day someone will write a book about how that happened. They are one of the main reasons why what started out as an opportunity finally to actually influence politics from the Left, failed.

It didn't fail it was deceived and betrayed. The operatives who were there from almost the beginning, admitted their role, some of the nastiest people there. Ordinary people became disillusioned, probably part of the goal, and simple left.

Now I see kos attempting to play the role of 'liberal' in order to keep up the pretense, and to stay relevant, but anyone who was there from the beginning will never trust them again.

Kos was a Republican whose only real claim to being a progressive was his opposition to the Iraq War. On almost all other issues, he was a conservative and in his earliest blogs admitted his opposition to traditional Democratic policies, such as abortion eg. The way back machine is very informative, along with many of the break away blogs where all of this was recorded. Dkos is NOT a liberal blog, it is a Party Blog which they hid from the membership until they felt they had enough 'power' to openly go after Progressives, which they did.

If 'The Peoples Spew' is any indication, then it is no wonder it failed! Actually I guess you've never heard of OWS. A little movement that shook the earth to it's financial core.

who do have many fooled. I just checked -- some haven't been active for over a year. And, my goodness, Smartypants hasn't been active for over 5 weeks! (She's probably on DU, shit-stirring...) If they failed, it's on them.

Too many were simply loudmouths offering no substance, like Duchess St. What's-her-Name, who no longer appears to be active.

Others were lightweights trying to play in the big leagues, like AngryBlackLady, taking on Scahill and Walsh.

Put out a good product, and we'll read: Salon, The Nation, Truthout, Common Dreams, AlterNet, Crooks & Liars, Think Progress, Democracy Now, etc. The cream rises to the top.

Buzzflash and Bartcop as well (although he might be too course for some). Just liked you said, give us some really good products and we will read them! Give us crap like Spandan and we will rip it apart in GD.

As others have said, it doesn't seem like many (any) of the major progressive bloggers spend time knocking on doors or getting involved in their local party politics. But even more than that, they don't even seem interested in talking about how people can get involved, or how to build a progressive movement. More interested in saying something funny about the stupid thing Rick Santorum just said or getting into a pissing match with other bloggers. I've even called out a few of them over this, but most don't seem interested in doing more than news commentary/blog wars.

It's a shame. It seems like the '03 Dean Meetups that really gave him momentum were largely driven by the blogosphere (that was the only place I found news about the first one). I'm sure something could be done with these kinds of audiences if there were more bloggers interested in organizing.

Progressive blogging had a glorious beginning with what appeared to be a lot of potential. Then it morphed into what you said, a pissing match or witty snarkathon. People think that signing a damn petition or pushing an online poll accomplishes something. It doesn't.

You don't know what progressives do off these boards. Just because we won't knock on doors for some corporate-friendly DINO you think we're not activists?. We are the ORIGINAL activists. Take a look at any progressive cause and you'll find progressive activists. What you won't find is an army of progressives out campaigning for someone who sat on the Board of WalMart, who voted "yes" on the IWR, who voted "yes" on both Patriot Acts, who couldn't wait to go to war with Syria and who has never met an anti-union/anti-worker trade agreement she doesn't love.

The activists haven't gone anywhere, the "Democratic" Party did.

Just as the TeaKlanners blame the liberals for everything that is wrong in America, Third Way "Democrats" blame the progressives. It's called scapegoating and it has a nasty history.

You don't know what progressives do off these boards. Just because we won't knock on doors for some corporate-friendly DINO you think we're not activists?.

You claim to know what progressive bloggers do when they're not blogging, I say you have no way of knowing that.

This statement:

You don't know what progressives do off these boards. Just because we won't knock on doors for some corporate-friendly DINO you think we're not activists?.

That was one place where you could rub shoulders with the nastiest of friends.
Racist and vicious, a vomitous pile of "good friend".
Interesting family name, too.
albeit, divorced from.

but damned if I can make it out.

ever shop there?

relevance here to progressive activism or are we just wingin' it?

But your points about Wal-Mart board members and IWR etc stirred some memories.
Has Bill been to town more than once? The one time I know about he had a local friend drive him around
(Kerman and back I suppose) in their bus. The wife of that couple was said to be a close personal friend of
Mrs 2016. Their last name was the same as a pair of brothers from AR who figured highly during the impeachment episode.
Never thought to compare spelling, but their background in Wally world was well known, and their INCREDIBLY VILE right wing subscriptions (ca 93-4) really left you scratching your head.
Divorce parted their company and she married a trucking guy, and with young son opened Bentleys.
Appeared to be scrimping with their hiring practices, and no illusions about her abominable racist behavior.
close. personal. friend.

Significant comments from some luminaries of the left blogosphere follow the essay. Highly recommended.

-Laelth

It seems to be doing well from my POV

like Scaife, Murdoch, Adelson, Koch & Koch, et. al.

All that cash buys bloggers, media (newspapers, magazines, radio stations, TV stations, etc.) and lots of operatives and groups (FreedomWorks, Heritage Foundation and its Heritage Action arm, etc.) to organize and promote "grassroots" movements like the Teabaggers that can then control primaries and destroy uncooperative politicians.

fewer subsidies, lousy economy, pay-for-journalism hasnt exactly worked out, huge pressure against truth telling,
and small mobs of "disruptors" did their jobs.

Who killed the Whorse? That was no suicide.
The number of effectively progressive organizing tools in the box
has been at zero for a long time, and not by accident or clumsiness.

..."That was no suicide." Do tell!

I wish I knew the back story on that site. It was scathing, it was compelling... and then, poof! It was no more.

knocking down the media myth is job one for democracy minded citizens.
look what happened.
it has happened before, and has happened since,
undoubtedly.
Follow the Pacifica crises they have a pattern.

and money can sway the Republican primary voters - possibly because they're more easily led, as #3 pointed out. There are no more 'principles' at work in a Republican primary than a Democratic one. Just dollars.

Blind hate is not progressive.

they failed simply because they allowed division within their ranks, attacked each other on policies instead
of working together, they trusted too many people that was in it for the wrong reasons and some blatantly
sold out to the highest bidder and started doing their bidding.

There's a big difference between telling your readers to join OFA and making a snarky comment about something stupid the news media did. The problem goes beyond a lot of the big bloggers wanting to only be keyboard activists; it's also that they don't seem to even be particularly good at or interested in keyboard activism. They're mostly infotainment.

For one thing, I don't believe our democrat representatives are as corrupt as republicans. They will not just adopt some political belief or policy out of fear. I think our representatives are mostly honorable (unlike republicans) and believe what they believe because they just believe it. I think changing their minds about policy requires a different tactic among democrats.

I don't think you need to threaten our democratic representatives to get them to reconsider a policy. I don't think you need to threaten Hillary Clinton to get her to reconsider her positions on corporations or global trade. Many democrats unconsciously carry old mistaken beliefs and policy patterns with them that are kind of on auto-pilot until the issue is brought to the forefront and then they reconsider their position and adjust it. President Obama displayed this flexibility in regards to gay marriage.

I don't think most democrats are the same consciously corrupted politicians that many republicans turn out to be. Some (not most) democrats just have outdated software on a few issues that needs to be updated. I believe Hillary Clinton and many of our democratic representatives would be open to an update if it were presented in more a family discussion format rather than in a threatening manner. You just need to bring it to their attention that there is some fuzziness on an issue and they will, I think, more often than not, make the proper adjustment. Most democrats implicitly understand that it is very important to be on the correct side of an issue - that's what creates successful political representatives - and I don't think they would consciously maintain a policy that was in error if there wasn't some error in their own judgement that needed to be pointed out to them and brought to their full attention.

Nobody has to think.
Anyone can believe.
But self interest trumps all.
And if you get a chance to meet
their actual friends, you might believe
things are not as they seem.

the Republican party down to 28% approval rating? Because if it is, ah, well, fuck that shit.

This article is a bunch of crap. Progressive bloggers never claimed to be the gatekeepers of the progressive movement. And the so-called progressive revolution hasn't failed. It's just getting started.

Did anybody rally think we were going to remake the entire country in our image in one decade with all the forces arrayed against us? Things like this take time. Generations, in fact. What we have accomplished in slightly over a decade has actually been pretty impressive.

We have:

Elected the first African America president.
Reformed health care
Salvaged the free falling economy (not that it doesn't still have a long way to go)
Made great inroads in Congress
Changed the debate (99% vs. 1% are now household terms thanks to OWS)
Mostly ended the wars

We still have a long way to go. But to say that we've failed is defeatist and ignorant.

by the far Left and found it's way back toward the Center where the overwhelming number of Americans are politically. And now, Democrats are getting more change done that since during the 1940s when the country was desperate for large change.