We are heading into the toughest political fight we can imagine in '08. With razor thin margins in both houses and without the Presidency we are expected in less than 12 months to show the country we are worthy of getting more control and executive authority. This community with all its strengths and comforts is really not designed for the kind of battle we need and should fight. Why?
We don't have a way of leveraging the experience, commitment and political intelligence available. We don't have a way of focusing the fund raising potential as we lack sufficient expertise in that arena besides exhorting people emphatically on the web. We don't have the kind of organization that can deliver the goods despite our very best efforts.
That said this is a kick ass blog with a cast of characters I could never have hoped to imagine in any book or film. We cover the waterfront in age, interests, experiences, education,courage, empathy, sexual orientation (given DrSteveb's latest attempt at sociology), lefty political interests... The current sheer size and participation says nothing about what kind of movement this could become.
We should not shoot to only being the greatest political blog ever because we are already there. Our greatest challenge is to morph this into a movement with this blog as an organizing, educating, fund raising and communicating tool. How can we morph into a movement that will have a great permanent historical impact should be our goal?
We ultimately have to earn and raise enough capital to have a permanent staff to build an infrastructure that will be part think tank, part muckraker, part fund raising machine and part activst organization that favors the Dems but keeps both parties honest.
Is the ambition here to do something great that would require many more people to dedicate their lives to this?