On Tuesday night, the Netroots played a key role in almost defeating an incumbent Democratic senator. And although we came up short, we put a scare into that senator, and an even bigger scare into the Democratic Party apparatus. We didn't win, but we made our presence felt despite that senator's having the backing of the current Democratic president and the most recent former Democratic president, the latter a native son of the senator's home state. Some now will say we were wasting our time. Let them.
Without the Netroots, we wouldn't have even been in the game at all. We aren't where we want to be, but we're getting there. Money and entrenched power still control politics, but not to the degree they long have. The mask is slipping. It's harder to sell lies and weak compromises when it's now so much easier for those lies and compromises to be exposed.
Mass media no longer is a completely top-down means of social control. Television ratings are atrophying and more and more people are looking elsewhere for news and information. People can communicate directly with one another, on a large scale, without any filters whatsoever. Whereas it once was arguable that a large nation is ungovernable as a democratic republic, that argument now has a compelling rebuttal. The people are becoming empowered in a way that even a decade ago was not possible.
There will be many post-mortems in the days and weeks ahead. In absolute terms, we lost. Our candidate came up short. And there will be the inevitable false equivalencies about our grassroots efforts to move the Democratic Party back to the left with Teabagger attempts to move their party to the lunatic fringe. But that's merely more misinformation. Our candidates haven't been on the left side of our own political spectrum, they have been squarely in its middle. Those we have opposed haven't been squarely in the middle of our own political spectrum--they have been former Republicans and opponents of our own president's centrist agenda. The Teabaggers, however, have been taking down mainstream members of their party, while they themselves represent values that most Americans do not share.
Come autumn, both the Teabag Republicans and the Dino Dems will discover some truths that are less apparent during primary season. The electorate isn't moving to the political polar fringes, it is moving to the left. Teabaggers will win Republican nominations, but we will see how many of them get elected. Conservative Democrats will retain some of our party's nominations, but we will see how many of them hold on to their offices. We put a scare into the Democratic Party establishment this week, but that establishment will be even more frightened when they try to figure out what happened after November.
We have much to do. But the political fight has been joined. The forces of entrenched power will fight even harder once they recognize that they face an existential political threat. But make no mistake. The people are empowered in a way that previously wasn't possible. We aren't where we need to be, but we are getting there. And there is no turning back.