Let’s say hypothetically that Barack Obama secures the nomination and wins the presidential election in the fall. And let’s say that the Democrats substantially increase their majorities in both the House and the Senate. What do you see happening to the progressive blogosphere in 2009? What’s our role? What’s our significance?
I plan on writing on this soon, including more broadly about what I think it will mean for our political atmosphere more generally. But I want some feedback before I do that, because I don’t sense that too many people are really contemplating what victory will look like.
Good. I am glad you’re thinking about this, because I’ve been thinking about it for awhile now. In fact, I’ve been kind of toying with a diary in my head called “Does the blogosphere need a Clinton presidency?” for a little while now, but haven’t gotten around to jotting it down.
I think the blogosphere as a whole is going to take a major hit. So much of it runs on anti-Bush (and anti-Republican) sentiment that readership numbers have to go down if Obama wins. OTOH, a lot of people who weren’t engaged before (like me) are pretty much hooked, and with Obama’s message of empowerment and inclusiveness maybe the drop off won’t be as big as I think it will be.
It’ll be interesting, that’s for sure.
You have a good point. People in the country can only fight so long, get involved so intensely, and give so much of their time before they have to get back to the basics of living. I was an activist for 2+ years in the AIDS movement back in the early ’90’s, and I threw my life away for the cause, but eventually I had to move on.
But part of our job is to keep inspiring young people and old both to continue on with the “good fight” and keep at things. If anything the last 7 years have shown, they have shown we the people can’t trust the Democratic Party, as it stands with it’s multi-billionaires at the helm to set or follow a progressive agenda.
We have to do that ourselves. We have to keep bringing people into the reality of this capitalist-driven world that is screwing up life, living, and the planet. Maybe the awful effects of global climate change will keep the fires burning. Maybe.
I think the Blogosphere could get very healthy from a Democratic win.
It would take the pressure off of the cult of personality and we’d lose some of the more uninformed, or misinformed new comers.
Over on dKos, the climate has shifted dramatically to those screamers and the thinkers and doers have left.
We should be able to get back to business on developing and critiquing policy instead of being the echo chamber of the Corporate Media.
I do think the Blogosphere will take a hit from Liberals though.
I think they’re going to go right back to business and start distancing themselves from the left and pounding on us telling us to STFU, we’ve got a majority to maintain.
It’s going to be interesting for sure.
Cheers,
Ron
Booman,
I think the answer is that the bloggers ought to be pushing Congress and the White House toward a more progressive agenda. Just because Democrats might control the entire Federal government in 2009 doesn’t mean that things will move in a good direction from a progressive viewpoint. The present contest between Clinton and Obama have reminded me of how many regressives we still have within the Party.
That’s exactly it. If the disappointing results of the 2006 congressional takeover are any evidence, we’ll still have our hands full holding our side’s feet to the fire.
More importantly, it’s up to us to come up with an agenda and push it. The politicians aren’t going to come up with one on their own, and frankly, the expectation that they will is part of what’s wrong with our political system today. These turkeys are our representatives, and it’s our job to tell them what they’re representing.
The Bush administration has done so much damage over the 8 years they’ll have been in office, it will take years of hard work to undo it. There will be a huge role for progressive bloggers in making sure that job gets done. For example: promoting Nuclear non-proliferation, appointing progressives to the courts, getting rid of all the partisan hacks Bush installed at all levels of our government, Congressional investigations will need to be done on all the Bushies and their abuses, re-establishing Congressional checks and balances, shifting wealth from the wealthiest to the poorest, instituting a national healthcare plan, ending the weaponization of space, getting out of Iraq, withdrawing military forces from the Persian Gulf, ending Bush’s draconian economic sanctions on Iran, earning back our world reputation, ending the Bush administration’s assault on the New Deal, reinstituting needed regulations [such as on banks], rebuilding infrastructure [remember our collapsing bridges and New Orleans]…I could go on.
I think progressive blogs are going to be very busy!
Very well done. A beautiful program for America, indeed, for all of us.
It’s a very good, comprehensive list–but what goes first? Who or what decides which issue should receive the most attention? At best, this will take “only” 12 years–two terms for President Obama and at least one term for his successor.
So I think that will be the fight: choosing among competing priorities. And there are many.
Protecting the Bill of Rights comes first. Getting back habeas corpus, ands the fourth amendment. Unless these guarantees are back in place, nothing else matters. This needs to be done through investigations of the criminal violations of the Constitution perpetrated on our citizens by the Bush administration.
Yes! A lot of work to do.
We can do a lot of things at once.
I agree, but we’ll still have to prioritize–and what will happen then?
Not that I’m trying to be difficult, because unlike wingnuts, we can walk and chew gum at the same time. But perhaps what tops your list wouldn’t top someone else’s, and maybe Obama’s top priorities don’t match some of his supporters. Will we feel sold out? I hardly know where to begin: the war, really dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, infrastructure, health care, education and finding the money to pay for it all; assessing the damage done by this sorry admin.
And that’s just for STARTERS.
It’s great to have the conversation now, so we can be organized about what we want done and frame the debate as we proceed. If we’re especially good, then we might get 75 percent of what we want. Or it might be closer to 50 percent.
Either way, it won’t be everything, because “everything” isn’t realistic. There’s the easier stuff: making sane judicial and political appointments who actually have a use for logic, reason and science; enforce regulations; rescind the Mexico City language/global gag rule on NGOs who perform or provide info about abortion services. For me, I’d start out including everything I want to see done; what I think MUST be done in a logical way, and fight for it.
Before doing anything, though, I’d celebrate. Catch my breath. Reflect. Rest a bit more.
Then get back to work.
It might be a good idea for us to wrestle around with the Progressive moniker.
We should push the liberals away from the Progressive moniker by challenging them on their progressive creds.
We should be able to force them left if we make them fight for the privilege of being able to use the Progressive moniker.
Does that make sense?
http://www.koin.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=ff21e14a-75a7-4bcf-a73d-37b21428663b
Big group of Oregon legislators endorsed Obama today….
That’s a great piece!
This race and Obama’s administration will likely see a continuation of the shift away from daily newspapers and indeed MSM which means bloggers will find more and more not-ready-yet-for-activism, but-curious-anyway mainstream people joining the ranks.
I see one of the stronger roles as encouraging participation if not activism locally as well as the larger issues. Education on issues and probably consolidation of various blogs perhaps for economic reasons & maybe geographically for local activism.
If indeed global warming begins to get the attention it begs the aspect of global networking is a natural.
well for about a month or two we’ll jump up and down that Traitor Joe Lieberman was kicked out of the Democratic Party. after that, well probably just fight among ourselves over things like tax credits for electric cars or solar power or wind power.
There is a long way to go before everything is nice and pretty and we don’t have battles to be won. We need to work towards Equality for All People, Better education, and better Democrats just to name a few. We still have states where it is legal to discriminate. Just because a Democrat is in the white house and we have a majority in Congress doesn’t mean we won’t still have to fight tooth and nail to get things done.
I see us being the watch dogs and making sure people don’t get too damn comfortable and let another Bush & co. style regime come back to power.
And this is exactly why I don’t want to support Hillary Clinton for President — more of the same old way of doing things.
Keep their feet to the fire. No more excuses for inaction.
I’m sure there’s more . . . 🙂
8. Eliminate corporate welfare
I think an interesting question for Obama would be to ask to what extent his administration would spend time and energy going after the Bushniks for their various crimes. I can see good arguments on either side of that question; on one hand I’d hate to see a new President and his progressive agenda get bogged down with a bunch of stuff that happened five years ago, but on the other hand, if we don’t hold ourselves to the standards laid down by the Constitution and the law, then we have essentially given up on American principles.
This would be gunpowder for the Media. And it would be spun as the politics of destruction by the Right, which is not going away just because the Dems take over the Legislative and Executive. Our country will still have a divisive minority that has a loud voice and a lot of support in it’s billionaires and child-like minions of finger-pointers in the public.
Which is why both Nixon and Reagan got off. And why Rumsfeld, Cheney, Negroponte et al. were free to come back and haunt us again.
I can see why the urge to move on, but those unpunished crimes and the mentality that supported them doesn’t go away, simply goes underground. A knotty problem.
The agenda that Obama has been talking about — the issues that I think a lot of people are interested in, from healthcare to ending our involvement in Iraq to the economy to facing the climate crisis to restoring the government to something FUNCTIONAL — is going to need a lot of public support to succeed.
The lobbying is already starting — if you pay attention to the PR commercials on network and cable TV. See all those warm-fuzzy PR ads from energy companies, from pharmaceutical firms, from car manufacturers — trying to tell us how much they care about the environment, or want to help people afford their meds? Wait until the health insurance lobby starts THEIR push to protect their business as usual. The industry special interests are not going to give up just because there’s a new President and a lot of new faces on Capitol Hill.
The blogosphere, the grassroots organizations that have been developed over the past few years, the whole internet-as-alternate-media thing, are going to be crucial to countering the “grassroots” voices of industry special interests. (When corporate CEOs and senior VPs attend big legislative conferences, get hints from professional lobbyists and arrange for personal visits with their Congress reps and Senators, and form PACs to fund the campaigns of their “friends in Washington” — yes, they DO refer to that as “grassroots lobbying”…)
It’s going to take a lot of pressure on Congress to get the changes made, and the netroots can be a big part of that, keeping an eye on things and shouting loudly when necessary. I think Obama is counting on that kind of public support (and opposition when necessary) to keep the pressure on and counter the lobbyists and big corporate interests. We know we can’t count on the media to do it. Public pressure WORKS.
We can’t afford to be complacent, even when we win… because the corporate interests aren’t going to give up, they’re going to fight to keep every advantage they now have. It’s going to be a long struggle — the election is just the first step.
Exactly. Well said.
I’m afraid that after eight years of Chimpy McFlightsuit and his Merry Pranksters, I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the possibility of victory. It looks like this could finally be the hour when the ship comes in, but there’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip.
And even if (when) Barack Obama is President, that won’t be the end of the battle. He’s just one guy. By himself, he isn’t going to be able to change things. But if he inspires enough people to get off their butts and demand change from those they elect to Congress . . . then we’ll have something.
So if (when) the networks project the election for Obama, I will do the Snoopy dance on November the 5th.
And then it’ll be time to get back to work.
Just cause I know you’ll think this is neat
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/2/0239/25031/700/488495
That is cool. Thanks. I’m not sure how you knew I’d be interested in stuff like this, but I am. Actually I’d love to see lighter-than-air craft using sail for part of their motive power; but then maybe what I really want to do is just live in a Hayao Miyazaki film. 🙂
A little Dylan to brighten up a progressive’s day.
I hope we can talk about a lot of very specific legislation, and urge those on the hill to not give in on important provisions and to shoot down unwanted amendments. There is so much we could do if we really had a workable majority. My gosh, the mind boggles.
I just want to get through PA. I so want Obama to win there, more than in any other state!!!!
Have you been to Real Clear Politics? As with every state, as soon as he hit the ground, his numbers took a steep upward turn. But will he catch Clinton before the clock runs out?
Ah, the suspense.
This is the most exciting and important election in my lifetime!!
I think that part of the role of the progressives in a world where there is a working Democratic majority is to demand more from that working majority than they will be willing to give and to constantly challenge the status quo.
I’d like that to be the principal mission of the progressive blogosphere. Rather than focusing almost exclusively on elections or spending time touting bad legislative compromises because some bloggers are convinced that’s all they can achieve.
And in connection with that, on a practical level, I’d like to see the blogosphere better harness the talents and energy of the netroots (the REAL netroots not the elite bloggers) who should be treated as more than a herd of sheep to instruct to give money or make phone calls. There’s a lot of talent out there that’s going unused. I’d like to see the blogosphere encourage action that isn’t driven from the top-down but is instead collaborative – like Jerome and Adam tried (and are still trying to do ) with Energize America. Once we don’t have a Republican maniac running the country there should be time to try out innovative ways to collaborate on ideas. Instead, again, of focusing solely on electoral victory.
And next year when people run pictures taken at conferences with bloggers, I want to be surprised. Instead of seeing the same old Gang of 10 on the platform at every single bloggers conference.
Hi
I just want to take a minute to introduce myself. I just joined here and am an ex-NO Quarter poster who along with many others quit in disgust when it became a rabid pro Hillary/anti Obama site. I also have emailed several other former NQ posters and hope they will join to.
Keyman12
Hi Keyman, welcome to the Pond. I hope you find it to your liking. We’re a pretty good bunch, and while occasionally the discussion gets a bit, um, heated, it seldom gets nasty.
Hi Keyman12…;o) good to see ya here…hugs…post away…I know you will find this site more loving and less arbitrary in the way it functions…
Thanks Brenda Cee told me you were on here, been so depressed with the Dem in fighting hadnt wanted to post anywhere, nice that other ppl welcomed me here.
Welcome! Glad to have you here!
Welcome to the pond!!!!!
Welcome! Look for a complimentary BMT fruitbasket in your mailbox, on its way to you even as we speak.
http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=107611
Jimmy Carter almost comes out for Obama in this article. Wish he would just do it..!
Pushback against corporate influence/corporate rule
— as we are doing now. It will take a tremendous effort to push back againt their ownership of our societal institutions: medical, defense, transportaion, energy. They are preventing any movement to solve problems that do not include their continuing ability to rape our treasury.
Step one: celebrate our victory
Step two: decry other side’s attempt to sabotage us
Step three: grumble about those within our own party who aren’t “on board”
Step four: revolt and attempt to reform the party from within
Step five: lose control of gov’t, start again.
that’s a serious answer. people get the wrong ideas about winning, they think utopia will follow. actually, being in the minority party is much easier because there’s only one direction to go, in the end. but in the winning party you have enough power to go in any direction you want, and so your followers get upset and you fall apart because you can’t go in all directions at once.
“Winning” is just the beginning.
Politics and governance need structural reform, starting with ever-greater transparency.
We can hold both Democrats and Republicans accountable for their actions — and the larger our majority, the harder we can push our own people, sacrificing some dirty power in the short term to build a cleaner kind of power for the years to come:
And all because the leadership has no other choice.
Two things I like from colinski: {1} What just happened? mold the (progressive) meaning, the narrative, of this election; {2} Social actors and dramaturgical expectations… how do we translate who we thought we voted for to what actually shows up in the White House?
Define foundational progressive themes everyone should be aware of (that’s part of the narrative). I’d like you to continue the realignment theme and expand your thoughts about coalition — specifically the Youth Vote. Did we just crash the gate? What’s the next step — get a new gate? Lastly, how does space exploration become a progressive issue?
I honestly thoink that the left blogosphere will turn against Obama just as it has against the Clintons.
It’s “role” is to complain, and even Jesus Christ would not be able to satify its ravening maw.
Watch.
AG
We’ll get by as long as you’re still here to complain about the complainers. 😉
It will be nice to have such problems!
In point of fact, I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that nothing will help, and radically limiting my time and efforts on these blogs as a result. We will bluff and blunder our way through as a nation just as we always have until the totality of all of our mistakes finally catches up with us, at which point there will be holy hell to pay.
Karma IS a bitch. Knoxville.
A stubborn and consistent bitch.
Bet on it.
AG
During the Nevada debate Obama was quoted from the Reno Gazette-Journal interview (video) where he said he wasn’t an operating officer. Then he was asked about his greatest weakness, Obama said, “I ask my staff member to hand me paper until two seconds before I need it because I will lose it. You know, the — you know… And my desk and my office doesn’t look good. I’ve got to have somebody around me who is keeping track of that stuff. And that’s not trivial; I need to have good people in place who can make sure that systems run”.
My number one issue is how President Obama communicates to the public & how the public continues to communicate with him. What’s the most effective way progressives can help this president “keep track of stuff”? What’s the best way to establish and maintain a progressive agenda?
The Senate is such a stodgy institution and so truly conservative, that our challenges will be only just beginning. There’s no hope (sorry) of immediately getting rid of the electoral college, but a “proportional allocation” constitutional amendment is within reach. Now, that’s not just a way to eliminate automatic red states, but to re-energize progressives in all those square states as well as northern Michigan and FLorida, southern Ohio, who will suddenly feel like their efforts really mean something.
And despite what the candidates are saying to get elected, a coalition of progressives needs to introduce universal single payer health care. Yes, we can. Obama won’t veto it. We need to send health insurance companies to the land of the dinosaurs.
I have no doubt that the GOP will attack attack attack so the Dems will need defense. I also have no doubt that weak Dems will cave on important issues if given the chance so there will need to be a concerted effort to stop that if possible.
IMO
Even a massive victory will not diminish the need for the blogs to keep on doing just what they’ve been doing. Why? Because there are to many squadrillionaires and international fraudsters and manipulators out there to let down our guard for a second. These guys want to do stuff with their money and stuff to make more money. They have no scruples, and as we know, they have a network of decet known as the MSM. Watch your backs, Democrats.
I’m late to this diary and, for the moment, don’t have the time to read the comments, so I hope it will be forgiven if I duplicate what someone else has already said.
I think the progressive blogosphere’s primary job during an Obama presidency will be to help prevent the Democratic Party leadership and DLC-types and the big money folks that feed that party leadership from sabotaging Obama’s initiatives.
In one way I think it will be harder for responsible truthtelling bloggers to do this because there’s probably going to be a lot less money flowing in through ad revenue as the economy continues it’s slow-motion implode. In another way it will be easier for reality-based bloggers views and ideas to resonate because the media gasbag messages that have undermined our democracy for 8 straight years will be less well received by the hoi polloi as the social and economic fabric is further rent. More people will be pissed at the likes of Russert, Matthews and the like for all they’ve failed to predict, and for their conspicuous lack of solutions.