Often it seems the netroots is in disarray. Expressions of frustration and despair rise up here and there on one side. Annoyance and suspicion at the true intentions of such comments rise up in response. Tensions within the movement have hardly abated since the Inauguration. If anything they are following a path comparable to the animus between Democrats and Republicans. Aversion to this course fills all thoughts.. and paradoxically intensifies the need to "win" against ones fellows as well as one's rivals.
Yes, the heady days seem gone... of deep conversations and decrying the need for change, the rollout of a plan for achieving influence, garnering first snickers then begrudging acknowledgment from the powers of the press and traditional politics and then our own role, freely and gladly given, in winning back first Congress then the White House in 2006 and 2008, respectively.
Sigh. Where did it all go? Where are we now?
Answer: Relax. We got this. The Revolution is still happening. If history is any guide, the seeming stall, the acrimony within the ranks and amongst our own leaders, will sort out. For this is the natural course of revolutions. By that I mean the successful ones.
Political revolutions are successful transformations of a regime from one form to another. They do not always require violence. They do not always require moral progress. They do not always involve mass participation. What they consistently do is change the balance of participation in political life, clearing out some layers of culture, ideology and institutions and replacing the gaps with innovative versions.
The problem with innovations of course is that there are always more possible than practical notions, and more practical ideas that practiced ones. You can't possibly try everything all at once and expect to succeed, which is why many revolutions have stages - there is the initial few rounds of material successes, then a dynamic transition from insurgency to incumbency as a movement, then struggles within the revolutionary leadership, then debates of the philosophy and structure of the movement amongst the winning coalition of new elites, promulgation of a new ethos and its implementation.
All of this takes place in a context where there are plenty of external detractors. After all, this is a revolution we are talking about. There are not just interests of the old order that are being threatened but all of the other possible revolutions who are finding their own agendas thwarted by the fact that someone else's party is happening - and winning - instead of their own.
Thus, at all stages of revolution, or any realignment period for that matter, strange bedfellows can emerge. In such times it is easy for competitors within a movement to levy accusations against their internal rivals, that they are in truth working for the forces of reaction or, just as bad, a single-user supporter whose loyalty cannot be counted on if they don't get 100 percent their way on a given action item. Every revolution has its trolls, one supposes.
The topic of revolution is vast and far better discussed elsewhere. I just felt it a good idea to raise awareness that, folks, the netroots movement is a political revolution. It has all of the marks of one.. and it's still underway. And what you see when you decry internecine strife, insufficient movement on a major item of interest, broken promises and a despair...is growing pains. One wave of transformation being overtaken and replaced by another which builds on the success of the former.
We have much culture to introduce to a wider political community - ideas of transparency and participation that we preach and we damn well better practice, for our very legitimacy as a movement is based on the fundamental principle that, as far as can be practiced, we should trust the public to be capable of meaningful participation in all conversations involving the public trust.
That is a profound departure from the old order.
That is the essence of the netroots revolution.
And the state of our revolution is - we are succeeding.