Bloggers threaten status-quo Democratic Party establishment

The Nation magazine has a article from a few days ago about the effort by the owners of the Daily Kos and MyDD web sites to take back the Democratic Party:

Armstrong and Zúniga characterize the party's coalition structure asmore of a "gaggle" of single-issue constituency groups than a coherentmovement. Primary campaigns are dominated by "single-issue dogmatists"who place "too much emphasis on what the party can do for them and notenough on what they can do for the party." This charge is leveledagainst environmentalists, labor unions and even the dejectedprochoice organizations that just lost two Supreme Court confirmationbattles. Channeling Hillary Clinton, the authors call on Democrats tosimultaneously protect legal abortion and "acknowledge that abortionsrepresent a failure" requiring "viscerally disturbing procedures."Since so few Democratic leaders publicly challenge the prochoicemovement's strategy, even when it fails, this argument is constructive.Yet many people will resent being told to soften their language indefense of a fundamental and constitutional right. While it is hard toprove which language is most persuasive, Crashing the Gate alsomakes a compelling case that single-issue groups' purist demands onDemocratic candidates have a tendency to backfire, sidelining viableprogressive candidates and insuring Republican victories.

The Washington establishment is just afraid of losing power, even if that increases the likelihood of the Democratic Party being more of a majority movement once again.