I was reading Chris Bowers' excellent diary on the FISA vote and I kept thinking about what do politicians actually want from the lefty netroots. I read these blogs a lot more than I write, but there's something about this question that keeps coming back to me. Why would Obama at the very moment of his greatest victory roll over on the FISA bill like his very political future depended on him knocking another hole in the 4th Amendment. It's a terrible bill and it didn't take a ton a political courage to vote against the damned thing.
I don't believe for a minute there's a politician in America who really is swayed by what we write here. They come to us, hat in hand and the other hand is held out for our money. Politicians have learned one thing since the days of the the Dean run for the White House--There's Gold in Them There Netroots.
Well, wake up friends--we're not political advisors. We're donors. Put Kos on TV, send him personal emails from the campaign and he's out there raising money for the campaign.
I'm not being critical of Kos or other high profile bloggers. They're trying to fight the good fight and even when I might disagree on an issue, I'm glad they're out there. But we need to look behind the illusion and see how the trick is done.
We think our ideas are being discussed. Forget that. When I hear Obama talk about the netroots and I hear him talk about people-powered campaigns, they're not talking about ideas--they're talking about all the fucking money they can get in small donations. Stop donating and see how many calls come in from the campaign. See if MSNBC is still interested in your political musings. The netroots is the new cash cow for politics and they don't even have to be accountable to us.
Obama can afford to make the FISA vote because he already has our money and we are not organized enough to make the threat that we'll cut that money off. That would mean we could as a group agree on something and that's not likely. We're like these major corporations in the amount of money we can produce, but we have no leverage and we're kidding ourselves when we think we do.
I hate to be this cynical, but I've seen broken promises for so many decades I was not surprised to see Obama and the rest of them roll over on FISA and they're gonna keep rolling over and we'll keep saying everything will change for the better when we get the veto-proof majority.
Me? I'm not counting on that one, either.