Newsweek/Daily Beast's David Freedlander has an interesting piece on the decline and fall of the progressive blogosphere:
[B]loggers themselves say the Netroots are a whisper of what they were only four years ago ... and that the brigade of laptop-wielding revolutionaries who stormed the convention castle four years ago have all but disappeared as a force within the Democratic Party.
An assortment of possible explanations is given for this phenomenon, from the great Clinton-Obama schism of 2008 to the monied substitution of super PACs for online fundraising to the Obama White House's indifference to progressive "revolutionaries." But I may have located another reason tucked away in the piece rather unobtrusively: "The days when people could be very influential in the blogosphere aren’t here anymore," said one progressive blogger.
They never were. It was an illusion--a characteristically progressive illusion of power and influence, much as the Netroots' successor, if you will, Occupy Wall Street, was an illusion.
I'm sorry to rain on their already drowned parade, but it's an undeniable fact of political sociology that movements require forceful leaders and determined direction, or they will die of their own chaotic muddle. The modern left, however, for reasons no one has ever totally fathomed, prides itself on a whimsical kind of anarchical non-structure which will somehow, in time and with enough agitation, bring all social ills into common focus and collective relief.
I sort of hate to say this, but it's still hard to beat, say, the Kansas City Pendergast machines of yore when it comes to actually getting things done: patronage, booty, coalitions, connections, the occasional body in concrete ... well, not to put to fine a point on it. But you get my drift. The Netroots? It never did. It was too damn good--too pure--for that sort of thing. Pity.
You are going to get yourself kicked off the blogroll at Crooks and Liars for being offensively truthful if you keep this up. I have been called every name in the book for saying exactly what you said here and for pointing out that virtually every blog post regarding the Occupy movement, at many lefty blogs, was about "the evil fascist police and the terrible things they do to us every time we see them and start to protest their existence." It was truly painful to watch Occupy's headlong charge into complete irrelevance. The saddest truth is that there was nothing there worth co-opting.
Posted by: Peter G | October 24, 2012 at 03:04 PM
"My strength is as the strength of ten because my heart is pure" sounds good in theory. In practice, it sucks.
A point the progressive blogosphere could never understand.
Posted by: Janicket | October 24, 2012 at 03:19 PM
When everyone demands their turn holding the "rain stick".. no one ever gets to lead.
Posted by: Susan Zoon | October 24, 2012 at 03:44 PM
As you point out, they never were a force, and the reason for that is quite simple. It's not so much a lack of leadership, it's that they disdained the "nuts and bolts" of politics. They persuaded themselves that this was the new paradigm of political action, while ignoring the need for "boots on the ground," and old-fashioned working in the party on the local levels. Add in that most of them tended to be clustered in various heavily Democratic areas to begin with, along with not being very numerous in real terms, and it's not surprising that they fizzled. The reason they're no longer as active is that many of us realized that some time ago, and decided that it was better to get of the internet and get busy.
Posted by: Norbrook | October 24, 2012 at 08:20 PM
Hey! It's Norbrook! Good to see you, esteemed sir. Always a pleasure to read your stuff. Between you and our estimable host here, there's always a veritable feat for cogitation.
Posted by: Janicket | October 24, 2012 at 08:41 PM
"Feast"! Not "feat". Oh, for an edit button.....
Posted by: Janicket | October 24, 2012 at 08:42 PM
Good points. But aren't you including yourself?
Posted by: Marcia E | October 25, 2012 at 07:37 AM