Blogosphere Day

by digby

July 19th is blogosphere day in which bloggers are asking their readers to contribute to Ned Lamont (and other worthy candidates.) Chris Bowers at MYDD explains, here, what it’s all about:

Our message is simple. No longer will candidates be considered unelectable for holding progressive views. No longer will the establishment take its supporters for granted. No longer will Democrats get away with boosting their own national image by facilitating the conservative movement and distancing themselves from their own party.

I do not have many complicated messages to give you when it comes to this race. We have already written more about this election on MyDD than any single election since the 2004 Presidential election. You can read you extensive archives on Ned Lamont, Joe Lieberman and CT-Sen. It should suffice to say that I believe this election represents nearly everything that the netroots is fighting for in our struggles to reshape the Democratic Party.

I don’t have an Act-Blue page set up for my readers, but there are many great blogs that do. Just check in with your favorites today and if you feel the urge, send along a couple of quarters.

I think my readers know that I care a great deal about this race. I have been a pragmatist my whole life and am temperamentally disinclined to support windmill tilting just for the hell of it. But I am also an unreconstructed liberal who believes, like FDR, that experimentation and risk are necessary to progress. I supported the DLC concept years ago when I thought it made sense to try something new to accomplish liberal goals. That was a different time and we faced a different Republican party. It is now time, again, to try something new.

We are in a brutal partisan era that cannot be “fixed” by any more capitulation to the rightwing agenda. The Democratic party has hit a wall and can go no further if it cares to remain true to its principles. Joe Lieberman has proven that he is incapable of holding that line, even in such fundamental areas as social security and equal rights. If bi-partisanship is to be reborn, it must come from the other side moving back toward the center.

Grassroots Dems understand that we cannot hold every Democrat rigidly to this standard. Some come from regions and states that are conservative and turning those attitudes around will require a long term committment to persuade those voters that their traditions and beliefs will actually be better protected by a Party that believes in democratic institutions than one that answers to corporate lobbyists. That means that right now we cannot spare any safe Blue seats to accomodate Joe Lieberman’s ego. Turning back this conservative juggernaut requires that every Democrat who hails from a progressive state must carry his or her weight. Lieberman has not only failed to do that, he has gone out of his way to give weight to the other side.

So, check out your favorite blogs and if they ask for a contribution to Ned Lamont today, consider giving. This is an important moment for the Democratic party. We may just be deciding if this party is answerable to the people or if the people answer to the party. There is a considerable difference between those two things and at the end of the day it may be the most significant thing that separates us from the Republicans.

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