The Lopsided Netroots
barnett, dean
The Lopsided Netroots Why there's no conservative Kos. by Dean Barnett In early August, the collection oflib-eral blogs that refers to itself as "the Netroots" held its annual convention. The...
...In other words, if the Republican party's "political machine" continues to misfire, the conservative blogo-sphere will be well positioned to help insist on a tune-up...
...Most prominent conservative bloggers are middle-aged...
...They will happily support centrists like Virginia's Jim Webb or Montana's Jon Tester so long as those centrists are "proud" Democrats...
...Just because they lack a grand (or even not-so-grand) political philosophy doesn't mean Moulitsas and Armstrong lack a tactical philosophy...
...Nevertheless, when the Republican party power-structure tag-teamed with Ted Kennedy to shove an atrocious immigration bill down Congress's throat, the "Right-Roots" as personified by the conservative blogosphere and talk radio played a major role in killing it...
...People on the right think their political machine works, but that the media is out to get them...
...None of them made an appearance at the DLC's annual schmooze-fest...
...In order to answer that, you have to look at what the Netroots are, and what they aren't...
...There are younger conservative bloggers who share Moulitsas's ambition, but none of them has amassed a fraction of his audience...
...Their turn-offs include Republicans, conservatives, and George W. Bush...
...If you're getting the sense that the main difference between groups like the DLC and the Netroots is one of style, you're warming to the scent...
...The convention's name, "Yearly-Kos," invokes the allure of the liberal blogosphere's most powerful entity, the Daily Kos...
...This part of his and the Netroots' war is won...
...Let's conclude with a further note of consolation for conservatives, who might be panicked over their missile gap in the virtual arms race: Mar-kos Moulitsas has frequently said his biggest asset isn't the size of his audience or the amount of money he can raise, but rather the soapbox that his prominence has granted him and likeminded lefty bloggers...
...Therefore, the Netroots long ago set out to supplant the DLC...
...But is this in fact a problem for the Republican party and conservatism generally...
...Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit, the most widely read center-right blogger, amplifies Johnson's point...
...While the Daily Kos, YearlyKos, and other bastions of online liberalism have clearly become power players, conservatives have no comparable entities...
...Seriously...
...A few days earlier, the Netroots' longtime organizational bete noire, the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, held its annual convention, titled "The National Conversation...
...People on the left, on the other hand, know the media is basically on their side, but feel that their political machine stinks, so they've focused on building a new one...
...Markos Moulit-sas and Jerome Armstrong penned the seminal introduction to the Netroots' core philosophy in their book Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics...
...Based on the relative success of their nearly simultaneous conventions, Markos Moulitsas can now give a speech on a virtual aircraft carrier under a banner reading "Mission Accomplished" if he's so inclined...
...Conservative bloggers have the same kind of soapbox available to them, but use it differently...
...The organization that once fueled Bill Clinton's presidential aspirations now can't even win the attention of Mike Gravel...
...The right-wing blogosphere doesn't hold conventions, doesn't win the attention of candidates, and more important, doesn't move voters the way the progressive blogo-sphere does...
...Opposition to the Iraq war aside, they're nonideological...
...Dean Barnett blogs at HughHewitt.com...
...Some people on the right fear that the left has developed an insurmountable advantage in harnessing the power of the Internet...
...Contrary to popular belief, the Net-roots aren't particularly liberal...
...The Netroots never would have become what they are today if it weren't for the DLC...
...For their part, the Democratic presidential candidates apparently weren't feeling particularly gabby...
...This claim looks a lot less risible after the 2006 midterm elections than it did before...
...A key part of their long-term plan is to open progressive counterparts to conservative think tanks like the Hoover Institution and the Heritage Foundation so Netroots denizens of the future will know what to believe...
...So what of the conservative blogo-sphere...
...The Netroots are passionate and in your face...
...The Netroots collectively believed that organizations like the DLC sabotaged liberal electoral prospects...
...Their turn-ons are politicians and pundits who don't shy away from exposing and excoriating these turn-offs...
...Johnson, as usual, is 100 percent correct...
...A mere 350 people participated in the DLC's conversation, roughly one-fifth the attendance at YearlyKos...
...When I asked him why conservative blogs don't do the same thing as the Net-roots, Johnson responded, "None of us purports to lead a movement, and we're working for a living...
...Different needs produce different approaches," he says...
...The progressive blogosphere is a hotbed of activism...
...They want to win...
...The most noteworthy thing about Moulit-sas and Armstrong's political philosophy as outlined in Crashing the Gate is that they don't have one...
...All the major Democratic presidential candidates participated fully in the festivities in order to honor the Netroots...
...the most prominent outposts of the right-wing blogosphere stick to punditry...
...Hence rightish blogging is more about punditry and reporting, and they've succeeded—note the paucity of lefty bloggers embedding in Iraq, while the number on the right is extensive enough that I can no longer name them all...
...In the past, Moulitsas has insisted that he practices the politics of "winnerism...
...So too did all of the minor candidates with the exception of Joe Biden, who was on a book tour...
...And they've succeeded, too...
...Some online righties are trying to rechristen the conservative blogosphere "the RightRoots," but a name change won't alter the conservative blogosphere's basic composition or aims...
...They may not know what they like, but they know what they don't like...
...One of the things that most animates the Netroots is the belief that the kind of politics practiced by centrist organizations like the DLC is best described as "loserism...
...None has shown any interest in developing a political movement...
...By all accounts, Biden's absence didn't cast much of a pall on the gathering...
...Scott Johnson is one-third of the trio of wizened lawyers that runs the Power Line blog, one of the conservative blogosphere's most popular and respected sites...
Vol. 12 • September 2007 • No. 48
