As Netroots Nation starts this week, some Democrats warn the liberals.

madfloridian

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Mon Jul-19-10 12:53 AM
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As Netroots Nation starts this week, some Democrats warn the liberals.

Okay, I know people here don't like the use of the word liberal, or even the left. However I don't know how else to refer to those who want the party stand up for issues rather than be so bipartisan. In this article Will Marshall and Artur Davis express concerns about the upcoming convention of netroots.

I don't know why they would worry. There are plenty of Democrats of all shapes and sizes and beliefs who will be there.

In addition to Van, you'll hear from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Harry Reid, Sen. Al Franken, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, Elizabeth Warren, Gov. Brian Schweitzer, Ed Schultz, Sen. Jeff Merkley, Sen. Ben Cardin, Sen. Tom Udall, Rep. Alan Grayson, Rep. Raul Grijalva, Rep. Jared Polis, Rep. Donna Edwards, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Rich Trumka, Jennifer O�Malley Dillion, Jon Vogel, J.B. Poersch, Tim Wise, Lizz Winstead, Majora Carter, Markos Moulitsas, Tarryl Clark, Bill Halter, George Goehl, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, Deepak Bhargava, Gerald McEntee, Eliseo Medina and many more.

http://www.netrootsnation.org/

This article by McClatchy News says the convention will test Democratic activists. Not really sure how that is meant.

Liberal 'netroots' convention will test Democratic activists

Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi will be speaking early on I think.

Activists in the liberal blogosphere face a crossroads: They had tremendous success in 2008 helping to turn voter anger into votes for Democrats, but persuading Congress and the White House to adopt their agenda is much harder.

Starting on Thursday, Netroots Nation will convene for four days in Las Vegas. There its members will quiz House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., among others, about why Washington doesn't move more quickly to end the Afghanistan war or give more help to the millions who are out of work. They'll probably be told that (a) Washington works in complex, deliberate ways, and one should be happy to achieve 80 percent of one's goals, and (b) since Democrats took control of Washington 18 months ago, they've won the enactment of historic legislation on health care, economic stimulus and financial regulation � no small achievements.

Really now, get a load of what PPI/DLC leader Will Marshall has to say about the netroots. Frankly I don't like what he said.

Will Marshall, the president of the Progressive Policy Institute, a moderate Democratic research group, put the dilemma differently:

"Have they matured?" he asked of the netroots. "They have to decide whether they want to make the grubby political compromises often needed to govern effectively."

There's another big question to be answered at this gathering: How does the Democratic Party deal with them

Have they matured? Strange question, indeed.

Artur Davis had some odd words for our sort.

"There is a growing gap between the base of the Democratic Party and the voters who will decide the election," said Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., who ran as a centrist for governor of Alabama and lost his party's primary.

While "most Democrats have at least a touch of economic populism," he said, many recoil at being asked to vow blind allegiance to any rigid ideology. The more they fear that Democrats are lurching left, he said, the more they will look elsewhere politically.

Wow, I wonder what he means about looking "elsewhere politically"? Hmmmmm...

You know, this is the first Netroots Nation formerly Yearly Kos that I remember without Howard Dean there. I just noticed he was not on the list of speakers. Seems odd.

I did hear an interview he gave last week to VPR about Vermont's long trail and his role in preserving and hiking it. In that interview he said he was recovering from hip surgery.

The Long Trail: Vermont's Footpath Through History

We return now to our celebration of the Long Trail on its 100th anniversary, with one of the men who helped secure its future in Vermont.

During his terms in office former Governor Howard Dean worked with legislators to conserve much of the trail. He spoke to VPR's Mitch Wertlieb by phone from his home in Burlington, where he's been recovering from hip surgery.

Dean says his first steps on the Long Trail were taken some 40 years ago, before he even moved to Vermont and the experience was unforgettable.

That's a possibility why he is not on the list.

I find myself wanting to answer Will Marshall's question about whether we have grown up. Such an insulting thing to say. I would say to him to define maturity. My definition is that we are able to recognize when we are being talked about as lesser citizens and lesser Democrats.

There has been enough of that.

I would like to ask him if it is mature of our party to concede so much to the religious right on women's issues.

I would like to ask him if he thinks it is right to turn public education over to billionaires who really know nothing about educating children.

I would to ask Artur Davis where he plans to look politically, and has he thought about listening to the voices of these people they call netroots and liberals.