This is my first diary for Kos. I have finally decided what I can do that might be useful. A review of material appearing in the NYTimes of interest to the netroots community.
Two articles where netroots are trashed as are Nancy Pelosi and other "old liberals". I summarize the Matt Bai article below and point out another appeared with a similar message by Profesor Edsall of the Columbia School of Journalism on the OP ED page on the Friday after Thanksgiving. I suspect both articles of being placed by Rahm Emmanuel's people but then I might be paranoid.
In an article in the Sunday NYTimes Magazine, November 19, Matt Bai argued that the Democratic victory had "everything to do with Republican failures and almost nothing to do with"Democrats. Bai maintains that the Democrats have yet to put together "an agenda that captures the publics imaginiation and respond to the looming challenges facing the country" and he argues that among the obstacles to putting together such an agenda is "a new array of powerful actors: Moveon.org, liberal philanthropists, crusading bloggers. These new forces don't care so much about litmus-test policies, but they are adament about confronting the president. The influence of the netroots, as the growing Web-based Democrats have come to be called, is likely to stifle any inclination toward compromise or creativity, making it difficult for Democrats to transition from an opposition party to a governing one." Hmmm. This, I thought, is not the netroots that I have come to know. Then the article goes on to dismiss Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barny Frank and Charles Rangel as warriors steeped in the battles of the last century and I am puzzled then Tada! All became clear. The next line "But the party remains reluctant to make room for its next generation, a pragmatic and talented group--led, perhaps, by Rahm Emanuel, the chief strategist behind the house elections--" and then we get a list of "lesser known names" and then the clincher "It might be too much to expect the paragons of Democratic politics to look to younger members. . .but the party that controls the next era of American politics may well be the one whose long-serving leaders can eventually summon the wisdom to step out of the way."