Straighten Up and Fly Left

So, Blogenfreude and I, among our many other conversations about important subjects like Tony Zirkle and sushi, were contemplating what, exactly, it will take for the Left blogosphere to get some respect.

So Shakes and me are going to set it before you, the home readers (or before you immature foul-mouthed jerks, if you believe Joe Klein). What do we do? Beg George Soros for the money to start Not Fox News? Trackback, comment, and blogwhore more? Do the Technorati? Figure out a party line and stick to it? (Ha!)

Part of this is the frustration I was expressing in my earlier post, where, with a few notable exceptions on the blogging side (Kos, Atrios, MyDD, etc.) and a few on the Beltway side (Evan Bayh’s All America PAC and Russ Feingold’s Progressive Patriots Fund have both been, in my personal experience, excellent with outreach and responsiveness), there seems to be a lot of contempt, often rooted is misunderstanding or ignorance, directed from the direction of D.C. toward the most dedicated progressive activists. (And this is to say nothing of the treatment we get at the hands of the media.) Our ideological opponents certainly appear generally to have greater access and respect from their elected representatives and the media than we do.

Another part of it is something Blogenfreude mentioned during our discussions was the oft-repeated assertion that progressives don’t use the internet as effectively as conservatives do—links, trackbacks, etc. Is it true? Does that make us less effective as a whole if it is?

So, there are two issues here: effectiveness and access. And, as I don’t have any answers or solutions at the moment, I’m opening it up for discussion. Thoughts, complaints, ideas, differing perspectives—whatcha got?