Jon Cohn posted a fantastic item this week about “liberal apathy” and this section jumped off the screen:
To be clear, sometimes ass-kicking is good. Call Kent Conrad a hypocrite on the deficit. Blast Joe Lieberman for carrying water on behalf of the insurance industry. Hold Obama accountable for the bureaucratic neglect that enabled the Gulf disaster. Liberals won’t get anywhere by meekly accepting every compromise that comes down the pike or looking the other way when Democrats screw up. Politics goes is a two-way street and liberals need their leaders to lead sometimes.
But if the left is going to demand action, it has to do more than sigh when action–even modest action–actually happens. The left has to show some enthusiasm, if not locally then at least nationally. [...] Otherwise office-holders, even ones from relatively liberal districts, won’t have much incentive to vote liberal next time around.
There’s also a myth floating around that the netroots — liberal blogs, etc — were enthusiastic about supporting the president during the campaign. At best, the netroots were just as divided as they are now and, by proxy, so are liberals. So the divisions aren’t surprising. What’s truly surprising, however, is how some liberals are disconnected from certain political realities — a disconnect that’s actually undermining liberal prospects.
