well great, thats a start.

but besides the terminological quibble, how is the loyalty of the Progressive Netroots to the Democratic Party working out, post Howard Dean, just for example, which was an early high-water mark for netroots influence?

a recalcitrant congress who can’t even reward their most loyal and long-suffering constituency, Labor, with the Employee Free Choice Act?

Single Payer, widely supported and needed, off the table?

A Democrat in the White House, prolonging and extending Bush’s failed, missionless wars, and covering up for Bush’s criminal torturers, stiff-arming the vaunted ‘rule of law’ FDL has spent years catechizing?

ah yes, there is the Supreme Court nomination coming up, the trump card, the reason for voting Democratic, no matter what. we’ll see what paragon of Progressive values Obama nominates for that.

If not now, the when?

That’s what I thought about the last election … if after eight years of the most inept, morally bankrupt, corrupt and criminal administration we couldn’t manage to elect someone who had a chance of reversing the devastating course we were on -we would be well and truly ‘hosed’. Then Obama became the nominee. I was more than willing to be proved wrong about him but that hasn’t happened and all the data to date suggest it never will.

I’ve been feeling the same way, phred. But I’ll be damned if I’m ging to throw my hands up and walk away without at least trying to hold them accountable. Someone has to, you know?

The question is, how to best do that? What’s the most effective course? I’ve been ruminating on that a LOT lately. If folks have ideas, I’d love to hear them.

here is an idea: make support for the Democratic Party contingent on their enactment of policies they campaign to enact?

then if they sell you out on almost everything – phred provides a good starting list – use your bully pulpit to publicly ponder the pros and cons of 3rd parties?

maybe erode the taboo a little bit, and also serve notice to the Democrats that the support of everyone to the left of Lieberman, and now Specter, cannot simply be taken for granted, but has to be earned?

crazy I know, but how is the undying fidelity and co-dependency thing working out?

Single-payer is off the table, and Obama is continuing the flow of trillions of dollars to Wall Street, and expanding the murder of civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan? How bad does the least worst have to be before people of conscience say Enough!

TC just now to Senator Whitehouse’s office with JimWhite’s proposed ploy elicited an interested tone of voice in the staffer. He said, in the interested tone of voice, that he’d pass it along to the Senator. Also called Senator Leahy’s office with the same message.

We soldier on.

here’s the amazon link:
http://www.amazon.com/Doing-De…..0865714185