Chris Bowers at MyDD has a post on the anger by the "netroots" who supported Paul Hackett that kos describes as "rabid". He writes that the anger is based in class. Not economic/income class. But class based on power, with the Democratic artistocracy calling the shots while we "rabid" netrooters (who provide the money, the footwork and the votes) have no input. Excerpt:

The anger is also coming from a newfound class stratification within the online world itself. Many bloggers, myself included, who were once total outsiders in the progressive movement have definitely leapfrogged a few class levels within the progressive movement. Markos [kos] is no longer just someone with a blog who regularly joins in the comments sections to his posts. Now, he is a media mogul with an audience approaching one million readers per day. He can raise tens of thousands of dollars for candidates. He can make news with a single blog post. He can call a Senator and have the call returned by that Senator, not by a form letter photocopied by a staffer. And I shouldn't single out Markos on this front either. A lot of us, myself included, now have a lot more access and power than we ever imagined we would. In the last two months, I have met Howard Dean and Russ Feingold. I have been to a meeting in Harry Reid's office, not fifteen feet from the Senate floor itself, with many high level consultants I had only seen on television or heard quoted in the newspaper. Presidents of major advocacy organizations will sit down and talk with me personally. I have interviewed more than a handful of federally elected officials, and several major news outlets have interviewed me myself. I was actually able to commission a full-fledged public survey, for crying out loud.

This is another way the anger is coming out here. The same bloggers who were once total outsiders, average community members, and representatives of the progressive activist class online are no longer members of the progressive activist working class. They have become upper-middle class--sometimes even higher than that--but they are still running the blogosphere that is the primary communication with the activist working class. As our position within the class structure of the progressive activist world changes, it is almost inevitable that our perception of the world changes as well. We are not as good at representing the activist working class as we once were. Not two weeks ago, I begged MyDD readers to take me back to school and re-educate me as to the psychology of the netroots. I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I was gradually growing more annoyed with, and dismissive of, the same community that I once found so incredibly stimulating and insightful.

The way that the Ohio Senate primary ended, and the anger that ensued online, is another example of the ongoing and constantly evolving class war within the progressive movement. I am not saying that I have the solution to this class stratification, but I think we would all be better served if we started recognizing it and talking about it.

I think this is about right. I would only add that when individuals move up in "class" they become risk adverse. The support for Sherrod Brown came purely from political calculations, money on hand, polling data, and Brown's past membership in the club. This is exactly the stuff that Kos would have railed against a mere year ago. Indeed, he and many MSB (main stream bloggers ;) have crossed over into the risk adverse, cocktail crowd of the progressive upper class with the resultant pollution of their political acumen.

I'll say it again. I'm probably, ideologically, closer to Sherrod Brown than Paul Hackett. But damned it. The Democratic party has got to understand that ideology alone doesn't win. If it did, we would have never lost. Take a look at the issues polls to prove it.

Candidates have to have "it". "It" is whatever the current meta-message might be, the messaging demanded by the current cultural/political environment. Right now, that "it" is a populist, tough-guy, straight-talking persona. A dyed in the wool liberal insider from Washington and the House of Representatives is hardly a message fit for a relatively conservative swing state, Ohio. And that's exactly what constitutes Sherrod Brown.

Perhaps Brown will wine ... likely due to DeWine being such a schmuck and the Republicans being in the tank in general. But that election is going to be an uphill fight with the GOP likely heartened now to be putting together a campaign against Brown rather than Hackett. I can just hear Rove powering up the swift boaters.

This whole incident with Hackett and Brown is the Democratic party's recent history. Same shit, different election. The disturbing change is that so much of the "left blogosphere" is now drinking the kool-aid, while we "lower class" progressive sit holding the bag .... again.