I thought very carefuly before using profanity in my diary title...
This kind of shit bothers me, because I'm a rugged individualist liberal, I have a problem with group identifiers, and the problem is the way the group is then controlled and characterized by such an identifier. Don't know what I mean? That's ok, you don't have to... suffice it to say I'm confused by what the "netroots" is supposed to be, what the word is supposed to mean.
Who is the netroots? The netroots may not be democratic. Take the ActBlue "Netroots" page, where the "netroots candidates" were listed for easy funding purposes --- while I'm a part of the netroots (unless I'm not) I had no say in who was on those pages. Evidently Kos and Bowers have gotten some feedback on that anomoly and felt it should be rectified somehow and so from now on they will choose the "ActBlue Netroots" candidates democratically on the blogs! Just kiddin', they changed the name to "BlueMajority" instead.
But some of what Jerome Armstrong said recently confuzified me back again.
quoted below:
Jerome says:
Meanwhile, as RootsCamp made obvious to me, the progressive side of the blogosphere is moving into fullscale integration of the netroots with the political machinery of the Democratic Party (like it or not), and toward a national coordination and funding of the 50 state-based blogospheres. We are a long way from arriving at those two goals, but compared to the rightside of the blogosphere, we are much further toward that happening. Of course, they've got a whole propoganda machine that they fit into as just another cog in the wheel, and we have nothing like it on the left...
This part, "the progressive side of the blogosphere is moving into fullscale integration of the netroots with the political machinery of the Democratic Party (like it or not)" confuses me because... wait, how can I be integrated into the Democratic Party if I like it or not? Assuming I am part of the progressive blogosphere (unless I'm not).
The "netroots" may be a word used by people to talk about their blogs (and stuff), but it is also a concept, a metaphor, that brings to mind the people themselves. Further, the "progressive blogosphere"... that's anyone that is progressive with a blog. Listen, anyone that wants to integrate with the Democratic Party is free to do so, but I don't see how they can claim the whole blogosphere will be doing so by extension.
"Progressive" means something, and some actions lessen progressive quality... you can't say, "progressive blogs will be integrating with corporate lobbying more and more"... because such blogs would not really be progressive anymore, their actions would reveal a lack of progressivism. And yes it's the same with political organizations. The blogosphere represents us... it cannot be integrated away from us... if it moves away, then it moves away. If it blocks our communication, we'll route around it, but we're right here and we are not something that can be integrated to the Democratic Party, we are the integration itself, we are the thing to which others can integrate... if they want to communicate.
There is shit all chance of "progressive blogs" integrating closely with the Democratic Party. BUT how many times do I have to hear "it's not a progressive blog, it's a Democratic blog"? and then also "by the way, we ARE the progressive blogs and what we do defines what progressive blogs are doing" ... "like it or not"? "Too often" is the answer.
This "leaderless movement" sure has a lot of self appointed leadership... but I'm progressive, and no one represents me. Let me be clear, I'm not lamenting that, "oh, dear, no one represents me". No. I don't want to be represented, I want to have a voice. I want democracy to be more direct... I want peer to peer politics, citizen driven politics, I don't care if the engine is people powered or blog powered, soy bean or hydrogen powered, so long as it runs and gives citizens the control over the steering wheel.
But I sure am sick as hell of people calling their stuff progressive when that sounds good and "shut up it's Democratic" when that serves. Maybe the "Dem Centrist Blogosphere" is going to integrate with the Democratic Party like it or not... that I can believe.