Wanted: Democratic Hacks

The left side of the blogosphere spends to much time in meta-level self-analysis. That is the verdict of Daphne Lasky of "Left in the West" (link).

I agree. I've come to realize that I spend an inordinate amount of time talking about what Democrats should do and not enough time actually doing what I say we should do. It's the old rule in writing: don't tell me when you can show me. Lead by example instead of by analysis. I would suggest that the best bloggers of the left do just that (Atrios being the best example).

Of course, both Daphne's post and this post are yet another example of meta-level self-analysis. But sometimes it takes a dragon to slay a dragon.

Brad Plummer also has an excellent post on this topic (link). Shorter version: "Too much 'Let's do it this way.' Too little: 'Yeeeeaaaargh.'" His suggestion: we need more hacks, people who will take the fruits of the analytical side of the left and actually put it into action but who won't spend a lot of time doing their own (public) analysis.

The hacks are the foot soldiers of a political war and the Democrats just don't have enough of them.