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Despite our moribund Democratic leadership and the actions of the spineless 19 who couldn't work up the gumption for a filibuster watching DU energized for the past few days was a thing to behold. People here of all ages were emailing, faxing, telephoning, dragooning their friends and relatives, interworking, sharing information, and generally browbeating our sorry representatives to do what they should do. It was a thing of beauty.
We weren't alone. There were lots of other blogs involved with similar high levels of commitment from their members. Democratic talk radio was energized, promoting the effort. The "filibuster for a filibuster" by The Young Turks, in particular impressed me. The unity and camaraderie was wonderful. It made me proud to be a democrat.
And the wondrous thing was it was basically spontaneous. Like one of those old Mickey Rooney - Judy Garland movies, where one of them says: "Let's have a show!" Well we put on a great show. An amazing show. We deluged the Senate with messages. Clogged fax machines. Forced reluctant Senators to do their job.
Now, my thought. What if all this were weaponized? What if we had a council -- maybe the DU Activists -- that was charged with liaisson with other blogs, Kos, Ameriblog, Democrats.com etc. -- and focused this power narrowly on a given struggle, a given issue? It occurs to me that so much could be accomplished. There are something like 84,000 people signed on to DU. Suppose we did the same sort of thing to the Senate Intelligence Committee and forced them to investigate the Downing Street Memos, the pre-war intelligence, the wiretapping? Suppose we flogged those Senators to to do their jobs there? Or maybe if we turned our fire on the White House? Or an agency that wasn't doing its job? Or focused on the EPA when it tries to gut an environmental regulation?
Sure, maybe we couldn't mount the same massive effort as we did with Alito. But I wonder...
Anyway, the one good thing that has come out of this from my perspective is a new-found feeling of power that is there if liberal/progressive bloggers are aroused and angry. It is an awesome power. We could maybe use it for political ends.
Face it people. This is one battle we win. We're a lot smarter than the Freepers. And there are really more of us (I think, anyway) than them. Oh...the things we could do if we were a little more organized and a little more focused.
Anyway...as I said...Just musing.
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