underzealous

Markos Moulitsas from Daily Kos got quoted in Newsweek, in their mandatory article about blogs:

Moulitsas is opposed to the Iraq war but says that isn’t what drew him to Hackett. “It’s not about ideology, pro-war, antiwar, it makes no difference,” he insisted. “In the online world, we need Democrats to stand up, not be afraid of Republicans, not be afraid of the right-wing noise machine ... We don’t care about ideology. We care that you stand up for the party and don’t run scared.” He pointed out that bloggers backed Democrat Stephanie Herseth in South Dakota, who, he says, ran a Republican Lite campaign. “We’re pragmatic,” he says. If candidates aren’t 100 percent on the environment or they’re kind of iffy on choice, progressives should overlook these differences for what Moulitsas terms “the greater good,” which is restoring the Democrats to a governing majority.

Sing it, brother Kos. This is what the national Democratic party should be more about -- strict ideology is not the answer, even if a party plan can unify things (such a party plan I've suggested in the past should be flexible to account for more views instead of taking a hard line as in the past). Fundamentally, it's about representing people, and that's what Hackett, Herseth, and other people like Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana or Governor Mike Easley of North Carolina, do. Right now, much of the success is based on the screw-ups of the other side, but to win in 2006, you have to do better than that. Get back to coalition building, get back to showing what the party is about, and get active. And define yourself before the other guy does because you don't want to be forced into climbing out of a box you never should have been inside in the first place.