Letters to the Editor
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Lieberman is still in office
He helped the Democrats take power after the last election, then he tacked even further to the right. Web Democrats claim victory, but the victory was hollow. They lost. We lost. Lieberman is no longer answerable to the Democratic Party and he is still in office. I used to believe in net activism, but I don't anymore. The people with the most power on the net are those with the least connection to the real, off-line world. People with jobs, and families, and busy lives simply don't have the time to spend arguing minutae on the net. There are a few intelligent bloggers who have established their reputations based on carefully reasoned thought, but most bloggers write for small groups of like minded thinkers and reject any challenges from "outside". The web becomes an echo chamber not unlike right-wing talk radio, but instead of moving us back to the center, this movement is moving us toward extremes.
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Blue Florida is right
The right wing has purged, marginalized and subdued the dwindling number of moderate Republicans for years now. They didn't need the internet to do it - they had talk radio and a network of other influential media outlets. It's about time there was a countervailing force on the other side.
It's easy to forget how powerful Al From & Co. were in the 90s and early 00s, and how openly scornful they were towards the large disenfranchised progressive wing. They're still scornful but they can't marginalize us anymore. A much needed redress has occurred at last.
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In answer to your final question: it's a win for the left
Here's why: Republicans are inherently authoritarian, and even liberal Republicans can be marshaled into voting for horrid legislation because that's just the way they operate: they obey authority: their whip, the President, Rush Limbaugh, whatever Republican is large & in charge. Democrats, on the other hand, tend to be free thinkers and like to lie around smoking dope, fondling beads, and talking about poetry. When "the Man" (Nancy Pelosi, for example) cracks the whip, they sometimes think it's really "far out" to disobey. Consequently, Democratic leadership has a hard time keeping their members voting as a bloc, particularly when there are so many who live in the South and have large redneck constituencies. There's no solving the problem of those Democratic congressman, but the ones in deep-blue districts should be dispatched so as to firm up the core of the Democratic voting bloc. Then Democrats will finally be on something approaching a level playing field with the authoritarian Borg.
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Mathematics
Can a person win an election 60% to 46%? What if it's a landslide?
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I am tired . . .
I am tired of “compromise” that usually means that my side gives in and gets nothing in return. I am tired of “bipartisanship” whenever liberal/progressive forces gain the upper hand, and the harsh tyranny of “majority rule” and “elections have consequences” whenever the conservatives are in power. I am tired of eternal pleas for the presumed but elusive wisdom of the mythical “middle,” which really exists only as the disjointed mass of people who don’t pay much attention to the issues and therefore don’t really know where they stand (and, too in many cases, don’t care). I am tired of the traditional media thinking that "balance" means one reasonable, considerate liberal against two flaming conservatives who shout and interrupt so that no one else gets heard. The mess in which we now find ourselves is chiefly the result of an ongoing and misguided sense of "compromise" and "balance" which were nothing of the sort. (Whatever happened to measuring statements against verifiable fact or at least reasonable argument?) After eight years of conservative rule, preceded by eight years of Democrats succumbing to the siren call of corporate interests, preceded by twelve years of conservative rule, it will take a lot of fighting just to get back to where we once were. I am tired -- but not too tired to support a little fighting for what I want.
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Tough to lose 60% to 46%.
60+46=106 - impossible
And, I wouldn't call that a landslide either.
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It's called Democracy
The internet cannot be dismissed as having any particular affect on the outcomes of people's decisions. What is does is facilitate people converting their preferences into outcomes. I am a small donor to several political and issue campaigns and have been since MoveOn.org was founded. I have donated to organizations that were founded to put more progressive Democrats on primary ballots. All of my donations have been online and none would have occurred had the internet not existed.
The internet has also allowed me to stay informed at a time that the "push" media were historically negligent. The internet added little to the sad fact that support for the war was demonstrably based on factually incorrect beliefs transmitted by major newspapers and television.
So, I am a perfect example of the extremism fostered by the internet. But the internet didn't create my attitudes. I am motivated by the extreme experience we have all suffered during the Bush administration. I have written emails and made donations because the Bush administration and telecom lobbyists are trying to destroy the rule of law and telling bald faced lies about what FISA modification is. Same with the case for war which was based on demonstrated falsehoods, and the gutting of the justice department.
Yes, there are other internet extremists with different information but I am happy to compete with the right wing on an even playing field provided by the internet.
Barack Obama's campaign is a quiet version of the Dean campaign with a much larger proportion of of his support coming from small internet driven donations. I am an active and involved supporter of his in part because of the relative grass roots nature of his campaign. But here's the amazing thing. I am excited to be part of a community that is not about confrontation, that has the chance to represent me and my version of reality. The Obama campaign is the only thing that has stopped me fantasizing that the next president would investigate Bush and Cheney and have them arrested and humiliated. That could make me prefer a constructive future instead of a vindictive one.
The internet did that too.