Chait on the netroots

Posted by David Roberts at 3:01 PM on 01 May 2007

Read more about: environmental movement | websites | green living

Jon Chait has an expansive new piece in The New Republic about the rise of the "netroots" -- i.e., the partisan, activist liberal blogosphere. I have my quibbles with some parts, particularly in the second half, but overall it's a far more comprehensive, fair, and respectful look at the netroots than you'll find anywhere else in the mainstream media.

I don't consider Gristmill part of the netroots, in that its allegiances, to the extent it has any, are to environmental action rather than to any political party. However, the distinction between "pure" analysis and explicitly activist polemics -- while much fuzzier than Chait makes out -- is something I think about quite a bit. I hesitate to burden you with too much navel-gazing, though, so I'll leave it at that.

For story: Chait on the netroots
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Like It Could Be The 60s

Imagine if this guy who was just Vice President of the United States runs for President and gets beat by such a narrow margin that recounting the votes in this one state makes all the difference, and as a result the other party wins and takes the office for the next eight years. During this time we get engaged in war that we can not win nor gracefully exit. The country becomes divided. This young 30 something conservative thinker, Kevin Phillips, comes up with a plan for taking over the south. The Vice President who got beat in 1960 hires him, adopts that strategy and wins the presidency. Phillips says times change about every 40 years, it is a cycle of American politics. And at that time air and water pollution were being hotly debated as to the impact humans had on those basic elements.

Will Gore be our Nixon? Will there be a Midwest strategy that will return the Ohio River states to the progressive fold?

by ffletcher at 9:18 PM on 01 May 2007

Atrios responds to Jon Chait

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2007_04_29_archive.html#520357 ...

by jjwfmme at 9:48 PM on 01 May 2007

Yglesias and Alterman too...

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w070430&s=altermanygle ...

by jjwfmme at 7:19 AM on 02 May 2007

ADVERTISING POLICY

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