"Trust but verify" is the motto of Susan B. Long, my boss and co-director at
TRAC, where for years we have filled the role of independent watchdogs of the federal government, looking at prosecutions, staffing and spending.
One thing we've learned in our years of analysis of data wrenched from the government through the FOIA (sometimes with the added assistance of a court order) is that no administration, Democratic or Republican, likes to have the analysis of actual facts interfere with its message.
So while I'm thrilled about Democratic wins, I know that after we get past the hangover and the honeymoon, our job as progressive bloggers will be to keep reminding them why we voted for them and what we expect them to be doing.
The complaints about the progressive blogosphere are as varied -- we're radical, we're angry, we're lazy, we're nerds, we're rabid sheep -- as they are off-target. Perhaps the thought is if you keep firing, something will hit the mark, like a shotgun to the face. But I think these kinds of aspersions come from the fear of oversight.
We are in a new age, one in which information flows more freely and opinion coalesces more quickly than ever before. The newly elected and re-elected politicians who have been assisted by the netroots have, in a sense, entered into a Faustian compact with us. We will support them, as long as they remain responsive to us.
And this obligation will not be satisfied by paying a staffer to write a blog entry once a week. It requires the actual elected officials to pay attention to our concerns, answer our complaints, and above all, be held accountable for their decisions.
Our part of the bargain is to keep on top of the issues, to engage in meaningful debate, to stay skeptical of claims made without justification, and to be honest and maintain our own integrity (just as we expect our representatives to stay ethical).
Together we're going to have to deal not only with undoing the economic, political and environmental degradation created by the past six years of despotic rule, but also with finding creative approaches toward dealing with new problems while maintaining a "big-tent" party and an open government.
We will need to trust the Democrats we just elected are up to keeping their side of the bargain.
Our side is verifying that they do.