I have heard a lot of talk about how 2010 could be a bad year for Democrats.
I want us to step back a second and ask one question: Are all of the Democrats worth saving?
Hear me out on this.
We've worked hard in the Progressive movement to elect many Progressive Democrats. People like Anthony Wiener, Bernie Sanders (Independent), Al Franken etc... I could go on, but we all know who the real progressives are. I think in 2010 these people must be protected at all costs. So we in the netroots should donate money to them and volunteer on their campaigns.
We also have a lot of Democrats who are not perfect progressives, but they are from districts which are fairly conservative, and they are honestly the best we can hope for from these areas. Nate Silver has put together a list of which Democrats are more progressive than their districts. Which you can find here (its a brilliant list, I strongly suggest we all read it):
I think these people should also be protected. It is in the progressive movements best interest to keep people in office if they are more progressive than their district, because they are the best we can do right now. So we should all donate money and volunteer for their campaigns.
...But their is a 3rd group of Democrats. The "Liebermans." There are a lot of men and women who the Democratic party somehow got stuck with, even though they aren't real progressives, and they aren't from terribly conservative areas. People like Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, etc... These people are dead weight. Lets just cut them loose. I propose that the netroots give not one dime or one hour of volunteer time to any one who does not at least meet Nate Silver's criteria of being as progressive than the people they represent.
Obviously the DCCC and the DSCC won't see things this way. Their job is to elect anyone with a D next to their name, so if we give money to the DCCC and the DSCC, that money will get to back to the Liebermans. So lets not give to them either.
Its time to cut out the middle man in political contributions. The netroots should create our own list of which Democrats we feel need to be saved, and save only them.
In 2010, if we lose the seats of a couple of "Liebermans", so what? We need to get rid of some people in the Democratic Caucus anyways, now is the perfect time to do it.
Lets just turn this into an opportunity.
I can imagine that some people might complain when I write this that I am suggesting the Progressive movement should be at each other throats, and that if we don't support these Dems, we all will lose: Not true.
In fact, don't think we need to primary challenge anyone. Not this year. If 2010 is going to be a tough year for Democrats, then I think primary challenging people is a waste of money. Instead of primarying candidates, we can just ignore them. Does anyone think Blanche Lincoln could beat a Republican opponent without our help anyways?(btw we should only do this for this one year, primary challenegers are often a very good idea)
In this day and age it is almost impossible to win a major Democratic office without fundraising and volunteers from the netroots. All we have to do is withhold our support from the Liebermans, and from any organization which might give to them, and give our support to protect the true Progressives, and to those moderate Dems who are from deep red districts.
The Republicans will do our work for us, and remove the remaining Liebermans from the caucus. I only wish the original Lieberman were up this cycle!
If we do this right we will still lose a few seats in the Senate and House, but what we lose will be only bevotes we never really had to begin with. Think of this next cycle as just a necessary step in weeding out the Liebermans among us.
Its' time to cull the useless.