Dave Johnson over at Seeing the Forest talks about why Democrats lack courage:

… Republicans who toe the right wing corporate line know they have the whole “conservative movement” infrastructure and political system watching their backs, sticking up for them and going after their opponents. Even if they get tossed out of office they can expect serious rewards. They get appointed to a nice agency position, or a think tank job, or a lobbying job – something will be there for them and they know it. The right takes care of their own. (And we all know this system extends through their whole infrastructure, right down to speaking fees and book advances for lowly RW bloggers.)

But it is not easy for Democrats to do the right thing. Not at all. It takes incredible courage and commitment, because they are on their own when going against the system and the right’s apparatus. For politicians who might support progressive values and policies there just is not much of a system beyond the blogosphere to encourage and support them to do the right thing. So they can expect no support – only punishment and pain. Dem politicians largely still do not support and stick up for each other and there is very little organized support from . There isn’t a reward/job/payment system at all – candidates and their staff in fact have to worry that they are harming their future political and business careers by sticking up for progressive values. …

Johnson then goes on to talk about how the blogosphere reflects this dynamic. We’re free to say what we like, and stand up for progressive values, but … we don’t get paid for what’s enormously time-consuming work and we can’t expect that everyone can do that.

This is one of the reasons why the blogs skew male, and skew white. This, in addition to the tendency of any subculture to reflect the racial, class or gender hierarchy of the dominant culture, means that an expansion of diversity requires some significant intentionality. People who statistically tend to do well, tend to carry that into all their activities.

So the culture of blogging is the culture of the same people who can afford to take unpaid career track internships of the sort that are common in liberal organizations. Conservative interns get paid though, and sometimes get housing and the occasional meal. Liberal interns get … the satisfaction of a job well done, just like most bloggers. And wherever two or three bloggers are gathered together, I will tell you that talk will turn sooner or later to how broke we all are, and how tired we all are of being broke and/or in debt. And yes, Dave, the healthcare question, it does come up with regularity. We’re holding this blogosphere together with duct tape and bailing wire by now, even those of us who you’d think would be doing well.

It’s a reason why you see fewer women, fewer people from low-income backgrounds, fewer people of color. Fewer of the people in whose hands society has not seen fit to concentrate wealth, and who just don’t have the cushion, credit or freedom to forgo potential income.

Everybody has to eat, and it’s hard to be courageous when you’re hungry.

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