Progressives (the word is synonymous with liberals, but it hasn't been hijacked yet) have a big deficit in terms of established think tanks that help shape public discourse. These conservative think tanks are the direct descendants of the "failed" Goldwater candidacy, and they took decades to take shape and become influential.
Which they are in spades right now. I wonder if blogs (or at least the very active subset of blogs that belong in the Koufax category) are not about to become the progressive equals to such juggernauts as the Heritage Foundation.
I don't really know the whole spectrum of activities that places like HF are involved in. But it seems to me that: we do help in shaping political discourse (many journalists read us, we are active in protesting poor coverage), some of our bloggers publish, and we help sell their books and position them in the public eye, and we already have many of us actively participating in politics.
Many a meme attacking conservatives and Bush in particular started in places like Kos, TalkingPointsMemo, Calpundit, and Atrios. And we're on 24 hour alert.
Oh, and we can raise money for progressive candidates.
I imagine that the conservative think tanks still could eat our lunch. But maybe we'll get to parity sooner than what it took them to mature. We're nimbler, we're faster, we're networked and virus-like. Or so I'd like to think anyway.
And the new meme:
The New Bush ads: "It's not my fault. The buck stops somewhere else."