Blogs. Think Tanks.
The left needs think tanks. We need them a lot. They are one of the three most important thinks we will have to work on after February 12th (which is the day the DNC elects its new Chair).
But we are not lost without them. This stuff Chris Bowers does at mydd-- this is serious thinking of exactly the sort that's warranted. When I first read Chris's posts on taking "Reform" positions it made a big difference to how I think. Now I (and I hope thousands of other people who read those posts) think about things in a more clear and persuasive way, integrated under the notion that we must reform: our party, our capital city, their SCLM. All of it must be taken apart and fixed (or scrapped), and that is the job of Americans who work for reform: that is why we are reform Democrats.
The biggest problem that Chris (and the Progressive Thinkers listed in the sidebar) face in their efforts is not having a big enough megaphone -- but here again blogs are think tanks: doing a better and better job of getting the word out every single month -- that's what mydd, and all of us in the left blogosphere, are doing. Yesterday Atrios hosted The Majority Report, a radio show heard on 40 radio stations and on countless computers and iPods throughout America, and his first move was to interview bloggers Kos and Chris Bowers. Call that a small step or a giant leap. This is us, slowly getting the word out.
posted by conchis @ 8:47 PM
1 Comments:
I agree, I think one of the things that differentiates the left from the right is that people on the left tend to want to do the thinking for themselves rather than leave the direction to priests, presidents, or think-tanks. This means that blogs and other public forums must play an important role and that left-wing think-tanks (even if they existed) would be of limited value.
But that also spotlights the very problem of the left - people who are not interested in following direction/authority are much harder to really organize. I'm not sure the answer to that, but I do think that creating memes and Lakoff-style frames is going to be part of the solution to organically growing the movement in useful directions.
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