Growing Pains: The Outsiders On The Inside At Netroots Nation

With a Democrat in the White House, a 60-seat majority in Senate, and a significant advantage in the House, the events at Netroots Nation should represent the tremendous influence wielded by progressives in the policy debate. Bloggers like Marcy Wheeler and Shannyn Moore are appearing with increasing frequency on the airwaves (though in a panel on Department of Justice scandals, former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman recommended Moore instead “run for Governor.”) Baratunde Thurston has appeared regularly on MSNBC and CNN, and now hosts a Science Channel show called Popular Science’s Future Of.

At Netroots Nation, though, there is a necessary urgency to the proceedings – with the public option in the balance and a number of other liberal issues, including employee free choice and gay rights, appearing to fall by the wayside in the health care debate, the panelists, bloggers, and activists in attendance are seeing their greater notoriety bring them to the frontline of another kind of political fight: defending the agenda they fought to elect officials to enact.

DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas argued being the numerical advantage the Democratic party holds doesn’t change progressive activists’ status as something of an underdog in policy debates. When asked if the mood at Netroots Nation had shifted away from earlier optimism, Moulitsas said, “Optimism? We’ve always been down and out. From day one, our movement has been built on the notion that we’re outside the gates, and that we have to force our way in.”

More to the point, Moulitsas argued, “Perhaps some people thought taking massive majorities in Congress and winning the White House were enough, but there’s a reason we have transitioned as a movement away from ‘more Democrats’ to ‘better Democrats’ — corporatist forces still hold too much sway in Washington DC.”

Darcy Burner – a two-time Washington Congressional candidate who now serves on the board of the American Progressive Caucus Policy Foundation – closed the conference with a fiery call to action for liberal activists. “You cannot rely on people in charge to make things right,” Burner announced, asking the crowd to hold elected Democrats’ feet to the fire on a progressive agenda. “We have taken our country back, and now it’s time to take our country forward.” The line encapsulates the tough fight ahead for liberal and progressive activists.

In the end, Netroots Nation attendees found themselves in an unusual position: the outsider perception of the liberal and progressive blogosphere is that it is a scrappy constituency that had a strong hand in shaping an election cycle. But Moulitsas is right: ideologically, progressive Democrats are at a considerable disadvantage in policy debates.

Conservative disruptors dominate Congressional town halls, forcing elected officials to back off public appearances. Today Representative Anthony Weiner (D-NY) announced on CNN that the White House could lose as many as 100 votes on a bill that lacks a strong public option — but the White House has its eyes trained on Republicans and conservative Democrats in the Senate. In the name of compromise, progressive Democrats find themselves being pushed to take a more pragmatic (or, for liberals, slow-moving and more conservative) approach to change that could leave them with nothing to show for their efforts.

With the White House backing off a strong commitment to issues like Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and a government healthcare option, the ideals of Netroots Nation seem to get lost in policy scuffles. The weekend – marked with successful trainings, insightful discussions of issues running the gamut from race to feminism to global povery, and passionate exhortations like those from Darcy Burner – was an incredibly successful conference, as a gathering goes. But as an organization able to shape legislation and White House policy, Netroots Nation seems to find itself where it started in 2006.

Progressives are starting to crash the gates, but for now it’s more of a foot in the door – their electoral victory may position them as The Man, but the progressive movement has a long way to go to have a profound and clearly liberal policy impact on America. For attendees already looking towards next year’s conference, it’s going to be a long, tough wait until Las Vegas.

Kit Kuzma is mostly a: geek-progressive, political dork, rhetoric wonk, and very satisfied Southern blogger. Kit has a degree in Communication Studies from a Southern college with no football team, spent a year and a half at MSNBC, and can be found on Twitter, Left in Alabama, and elsewhere as Media Gadfly.

Image via Brian Hathcock via Flicker:

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.