NP: Radiohead, The Bends

I had been meaning to respond to a post over on the Daily Kos -- which I can't seem to find right now -- where they took exception to being labelled as extreme, but I never really had anything more interesting to say than "yeah, they are."

Now, I've got all this simultaneous thumping of chests and wringing of hands about losing a Democratic primary in Texas against a representative the DKos community has deemed not enough like themselves to be worthy.

You just can't have it both ways. If you're not extremely liberal, then you can't get so deeply offended by a candidate who is too conservative for your tastes, although I guess that could be the plain old tunnel vision so endemic to online communities in the first place. It's the out of hand dismissal of open primaries, however, that makes it look more like the former than the latter, because they force candidates to moderate their positions before the general election. Or force the candidates who won't out of the race so cooler heads can prevail.

And what's up with the guy quoted in the piece claiming Barack Obama as a victory for netroots? Ten people voted for Alan Keyes, tops. It's bad enough they're trying to ride the coattails of the progressive mantle, now they're piggybacking on my senator, too?

The Week quoted a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll last week that said 68% of respondents don't think the Democrats have a plan, while 67% think the same of the Republicans. That means that roughly a third of Americans believe, on some level, that there's got to be another way.