The Netroots

Jonathan Chait of the New Republic wrote a long piece on the Netroots. I thought it was pretty charitable, considering the long standing animosity between that journal and the liberal blogosphere. Sure, he calls Kos philosophically shallow, but other than that, he tries to give Kos and Etrios a fair shake.

Chait breaks down the liberal blogosphere between netroots and the wonkosphere.

The netroots are a subset of the liberal blogs, constituting those blogs that are directly involved in political activism, often urging their readers to volunteer for, or donate money to, Democratic candidates. Other liberal bloggers, sometimes called the “wonkosphere,” advocate liberal ideas but do not directly involve themselves in politics.

The netroots wants to bring about a new strategic, Democratic party, one that mimics the cohesion of the Republican party. Kos says he’s all about winning races. At the same time, the netroots have been a major critic of the Democratic party and liberal journalists and Clintonian Democrats and, oh yeah, the New Republic. Chait holds himself back from saying the obvious, “cake and eat it, too.”

At the end of the piece, Chait admires the netroots for making some real changes in American politics.

They have pressured the Democratic Party to adopt more innovative tactics rather than rely on the cookie-cutter advice of high-priced consultants. And they have pressed the party to adopt a more adversarial tone…

They have raised significant sums of cash for politicians, organized volunteers, and brought together like-minded activists. This has, in turn, created an alternative power center for recruiting candidates for office…

But the most important role played by the netroots is to purvey liberal and pro-Democratic propaganda to offset that coming from the right.

Chait says that the netroots are the liberal equivalent of Rush Limbaugh. I guess I’m too much of an egghead, old-style liberal, but that idea makes me a bit nauseous. OK, ok, I know that the base does need to be mobilized and coordinated. But I prefer to be hanging with the slackers at the edge of the bleachers, rather than with the cheer leaders on the field. (Hey David Brooks, you can use that slacker-cheer leader analogy for a column if you like.)