As a former left-of-center blogger; I find this very, very interesting….
In the early 2000s progressive blogging seemed like a big deal. At the first Yearly Kos, as it was called then, big name politicians came and kissed our ass. We were covered by major newspaper and TV outlets. Etc…
Today, we are nothing.
The reason is simple: we could not elect enough of our people. We could not instill sufficient fear. We could not defeat incumbents. We did not produce juice. Clark and Dean didn’t win the 2004 Presidential nomination. Dean was taken out in a particularly nasty fashion (via the manufactured Dean Scream.)
via A brief note on why the progressive blog movement failed | Ian Welsh.
Update: I feel the need to nitpick a little bit:
The Tea Party, say what you will about them, gets a great deal of obeisance from Republicans for one simple reason: they will primary you if they don’t like how you’ve been voting, and they’ll probably win that primary. They are feared. Progressives are not feared, because they do not believe enough in their ostensible principles to act on them in an effective fashion.
Meh, Eh…. Meh….. I don’t know how much the Republican Party, fears the Tea Party movement. Now the establishment types; oh yes, they worry, quite a bit. However, I do not look for the Tea Party “power”, if you will — to last much longer at all. Ted Cruz’s little shutdown drama, might have backfired a bit. There are some pretty ticked off people in the ranks of the GOP; namely Business types. There are some establishment type PAC’s firing up, that might end up going after some of the Tea Party darlings.
What happened was this, Ted Cruz and the House Republicans made one glaring oversight. They forgot that there is two different wings of the Republican Party. There is a the grassroots, populist wing and then, there is the other wing of the party, which donates the most money — the big and small and medium size business that give OOODLES of money to the GOP —- and they ain’t happy one bit. This might be a problem for Cruz and his Tea Party friends in the house. 2014 will tell that story, trust me.
Plus too, there are a few other reasons why Blogging isn’t what it was:
- Lack of novelty status – Blogs aren’t new anymore. Blogs are just one of many social media “Thingamabobs” out there now. We’re competing with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and the rest of ’em. As bloggers, we should use them to promote postings and so forth. Like they say, adapt or die.
- Corporatization – Everyone, or well; almost everyone is on someone else’s dole. I’ve griped about that for years. There’s no independence in the Blogosphere anymore. It’s not just on the left either. A good deal of the right-wing blogosphere is on someone’s dole too and I don’t mean the Koch brothers either.
Also too:
The turning point was when Joe Lieberman, though defeated in a primary, managed to be elected anyway. After the 2006 House capture by Democrats, Pelosi’s democrats betrayed the fundamental principles that the prog blogosphere stood for: they did nothing to stop the war, for example. The Prog blogosphere took it, and worse, most of the blogs that did come out against House Democratic Vichy behaviour, lost audience. (Yes, they did. I tracked this stuff carefully at the time.)
None of which was the fault Progressives blogosphere. You can lead ’em to the watering hole; but you can’t make ’em drink. You guys did your jobs. Not your fault the Democrats sold you all out. Just my opinion.
Related:
Reaction in the blogosphere on the left, naturally, isn’t too good. Here’s the roundup: (Via Memeorandum) The Raw Story, Firedoglake, Booman Tribune and Balloon Juice