There's been a lot of talk about how the progressive netroots is left twisting in the wind. Why do the establishment Democrats ignore our pearls of wisdom, and our genius solons? Here's why: they have no incentive whatsoever to do so-and it's not simply that the netroots aren't like the rest of America. Why would the Democratic establishment do this to the loyal netroots?

Because we have the attention span of gnats, and are unwilling to punish Democrats. First, the attention span. Remember when Kos boldly pronounced that the netroots were going to boldly take back the party? 'Everyone' was raring to go, and then... nothing. Instead, we got a love affair with Rahm Emanuel's conservative and anti-abortion Democrats, even though our base is disproportionately pro-choice women.

In other words, many of the 'A-list bloggers' punked themselves. Well done. That showed 'em: when the hammer came down, we did exactly what the Democratic establishment wanted.

And the attention span problem isn't limited to the whole 'Fighting Dems' lunacy. Why the hell are we discussing Iran? We have two very potent issues: Republican corruption, and the Alito nomination-the latter is a two-fisted body blow as we can put the Republicans on the defensive about abortion and accuse them of monarchism (or tyranny or whatever else you want to call it).

But Republicans start talking Iran, and we drop the ball and starting worrying about having to address the Iran issue with a policy position. Stop with the wonkery, you morons. Here's how you respond: the president is using his foreign policy failure to create a climate of fear and further destroy the freedoms that make America great (or whatever variant floats your boat). (If by the end of every sentence you haven't referred to Republican failure and corruption, then you're not doing your job). Then you repeat this a million times. Repetition works: who would have thought that the obscure (and moronic) theory of judical activism would be a rallying cry for millions of Republicans, some of whom couldn't spell it if their lives depended on it.

And there is one recent exception where the lefty blogosphere closed ranks and kept its collective shit together: evolution. Bloggers, big and small, all pretty much had the same talking points (in part because those points were so damn obvious). The phrases "IDiocy" and "IDiots" were used so often, they became hackneyed. We were relentless, and there were enough of us that if someone needed 'time off' or missed something, the rest could pick up the slack.

And we brutally attacked the media and backed down A-list bloggers who were too damn smart for their own good*, and many of us had the credentials and the skills to do it: a non-expert really can't hold his or her own against a pissed off expert with years or decades of training and experience-or for that matter, a horde of said pissed off experts. And the media bashing worked: eventually, the idea that the two sides in the debate were not intellectually equal broke through due to sheer tonnage.

Now, let's talk about punishing Democrats. It needs to happen because right now we're taken for granted. The difference between the righty and lefty blogospheres is that the righty blogosphere likes squoozing its Inner Facist and falling meekly into line. We're supposed to be better than that. Let's go out and nail someone who's screwing around-and no excuses, even for the red state Democrats.

Alito is a gift sent by the Intelligent Designer: he is so repugnant and antithetical to Democrats that he is a penultimate litmus test. To vote for a nominee who would pave the way to ending safe and legal abortion, who thinks women and minorities should not have an equal place, and who believes that there is a divine right of presidents, is beyond the pale; these 'Democrats' should be made an example of.

There are two things the netroots does well: signing petitions and raising money. When I write "make an example of", I don't mean run primary candidates, or bombard them with emails. Instead, we need to play to the one emotion that the gutless cowards who 'lead' the Democratic party understand: fear. Use the internet with its organizational and fundraising capabilities to start recall drives against pro-Alito Democrats.

That seems crazy, and that's the whole point. Right now, Democrats fear Republicans. We need to convince the Democratic establishment that the Democratic base is so bugshit crazy that we'll publicly impale our own if they piss us off. We need to convince them that once the blood fever comes up, we care not whence the blood flows. Granted, the "bring them to their knees, so they can see the belt of severed heads you're wearing" strategy is from the Attila the Hun school of politics, but...Alito? Alito is so loopy, you're not an 'extremist' by opposing him with everything you have. If Democrats don't fight to the last against Alito, then what will they fight for? Don't they understand that to create a favorable political environment, they are going to actually have to lead and to take risks?

Until Democratic politicians suffer from abandoning the base, they have no incentive to not do so. As long as we keep "coming home", we'll be taken for granted.

Note to 'pragmatists': what's the point of winning elections if those who win keep voting as if we have lost? If not Alito, when?

*: Sitemeter says that post was hit around 13,000 times, not too shabby for the wee lil' Mad Biologist, and a lot more satisifying than all the hits I received for this.