Think about it. Every time the Democrats do something that makes the netroots happy Republicans quickly bash them as being taken over by the “fringe” elements. They quickly blast Move On and DailyKos as “taking over the party”. It always goes through me, like the sound of Coulter, when I hear this used. Are these pundits and politicians saying that the netroots don’t deserve a political party? That is exactly how it appears every single time.
I bring this up because it is time do a little role switching. Yesterday’s Washington Times published this story:
The Republican National Committee, hit by a grass-roots donors’ rebellion over President Bush’s immigration policy, has fired all 65 of its telephone solicitors, Ralph Z. Hallow will report Friday in The Washington Times.
Faced with an estimated 40 percent fall-off in small-donor contributions and aging phone-bank equipment that the RNC said would cost too much to update, Anne Hathaway, the committee’s chief of staff, summoned the solicitations staff last week and told them they were out of work, effective immediately, the fired staffers told The Times.
The national committee yesterday confirmed the firings that took place more than a week ago, but denied that the move was motivated by declining donor response to phone solicitations.
So now we have the RNC falling to the control of people like Michelle Malkin and Glenn Reynolds. This also isn’t the only case of the RNC being hit back by their own netroots. You also have Redstate declaring war against the House Republican Leadership:
The House Republican Leadership just does not get it and they will not take us seriously until we flex our muscle against them. We must fight the House GOP and we must fight today.
Today, I declare war on the Republican Leadership of the United States House of Representatives. We must scalp one member. That member’s name is Ken Calvert.
So is this really fringe elements trying to take over a party? Absolutely not. This is a case of people who believe in the core fundamentals of their own political party wanting to change it for what they feel is the better. In other words – it is democracy!
What the Scarboroughs, O’Reillys and Hannitys of the world need to realize is that every citizen of this country is entitled to their opinion and beliefs. These are the same people that talk about the old stale “inside the beltway” mentality, yet they also have an outdated “traditional media” mentality.
The internet is great because it gives anyone a voice. Anyone can blog and it doesn’t cost a dime if they so choose. Of course it isn’t the blogger who makes the voices heard; it’s the people who visit that blog. The commenters and readers who increase that blogs popularity gives them a much larger soapbox to scream from. Just the same as the bigger the donor, the better the access to politicians.
This is the changing landscape of our political system, and it is for the better. We are restoring the power to the people – where it should be. I am glad to see the right’s netroots gaining more traction and control in their parties destiny. If both parties return to their traditional values then our political system will be much better all the way around.