Someone asked me on another forum (paraphrasing): Why do you focus so much attention on Kos?

I readily admit that it all seems rather out of proportion, considering all the shyte the neo-right is throwing at America. I should be blogging about the black-box mystery man called Roberts, Rove the traitorous leaker, Bush the warmonger, Cheney the law-dodging plutarch, Santorum the sanctiphonious, DeLay the graft man, Frist the flip-flopper, Pat Robertson the would-be mullah of the American Taliban.... I should be expressing my dismay and outrage over the advocates of slavery who see women as wombs without rights. I should be calling out the cowardice of a president afraid to face ordinary citizens. I should be lambasting the Republican Party for betraying its core principles of small government in favor of a neo-fascist agenda that puts party above country.

I have. And I will again. But I hold out little hope. GOP leaders aren't going to suddenly develop integrity -- not now that they don't even pretend to have any. As someone who considers herself in the center of the politics of the American people, I'm fairly appalled at how I find myself to the left of most of the lobbyist-chasing politicians. Hell, Barry Goldwater couldn't win the Republican nomination these days. Nope. Not enough of a fascist.

No, there's not much hope for the GOP leadership. And their punditocracy is just way too far out there in loony land, and will remain so as long as their financiers continue to pay for their rantings.

But I do hold out hope for other people, and Markos is one. I may be wrong, but I don't think he's a bad sort. He's just barraged with expectations that he doesn't know how to fulfill. He wants to be a player, but he fears it, and apparently longs for the days when he was just another blogger speaking his mind.

But his site won't let him be just a blogger -- there's way too much traffic for that. And his fan base won't let him step back to be just a blogger.

He's pretty close to being an ally to progressive values I hold dear. Pretty close, but failing on some important matters, if you ask me. He asserts that I -- we -- should shut up and get in line for the Democratic Party, and relish the crumbs. I assert that he's the one who should listen, and get a clue as to what the netroots really are saying. People are not dying for the Democrats to win, they're dying for values and integrity to prevail for once, and so far the Democrats aren't looking too promising.

As things are tracking now, turnout will be low and the Dems will get thrashed. Yes, in spite of their appalling approval numbers, the GOP is operating in a political vacuum. As long as the Dems remain silent on the important issues, like liberty and equality, there's no reason to listen to them, let alone trust them, when they sound off on anything else. They voted for the war on Iraq, for the Patriot Acts, for ending bankruptcy for the middle class, for the pork barrel transportation bill, for the bullshit energy bill, and they're poised to vote for Roberts with hardly a whisper of concern. (Oh, they'll pose as concerned. After all, senators are nothing if not pompous.)

And so rather than focus on the inanities from the certifiable nutjobs on the right, I focus on the missed cues, erroneous assertions and missed messages of the mainstream and the left.

If people don't like that, then maybe they should shut up and start paying attention. Because as long as huge cross-sections of the American people are disenfranchised wholesale, there's going to be grumbling. And the message of, "Just pipe down, vote Democrat and hope for justice in some ethereal future," just doesn't carry much weight.

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