Jason posts this AM thinking that Liberal bloggers shouldn’t be so critical of Dion and/or his Liberal advisers not wanting an election:
Liberal bloggers need to add one more question to that mix. Is your blog helping the cause or hurting it? If you want an election, are you more likely to get it by complaining in public? Or are you more likely to get it by showing your support for Stéphane Dion? In my view, the public bickering only convinces the media to continue questioning the Liberal strategy. Far from convincing the Liberal caucus to go into an election, this is likely to result in lower polling numbers and ever more Liberal MPs wanting to wait….We recognize that it does no good for caucus to question the direction of the Liberal Party. Why is it any different for bloggers?
He repeated that in an imported note at Facebook, and I’m going to repeat what I said there over here as well, with a few additions. One thing that I have always liked as a fairly new Liberal blogger is to see other Liberal bloggers not be afraid to question and offer constructive criticism of official Liberal party positions - unlike the Blogging Tories who for the most part march lockstep with their party regardless of what they do. The Liberal bloggers support their party, and can be as partisan as anyone in their attacks on both NDP and/or Conservative Party positions, but they also for the most part aren’t afraid to question certain Liberal Party policy or strategy which they feel is hurting the Liberal Party’s chances.
Having the grassroots/netroots use their voice is a critical component of making the Liberal Party brass aware we aren’t happy with their positions. It gives a chance to offer feedback and a different POV, and in my opinion that helps prevent a “looking glass” sort of party, where everyone robotically marches along to the same music. If you look down south, the Democratic blogs in the US have done a lot of self-criticism of certain Democratic Party positions and certain Democrats. They have organized withholding money from the Dem Party at times; other times they’ve organized fund-raisers for “good Democrats” who have not backed down from Republican Party fearmongering or embraced Republican Party talking points. They even have helped finance and supported challengers to Democratic Party incumbents in their ridings for Dems they find particularly culpable to Republican talking points - Ned Lamont’s challenge to Joe Lieberman is one notable case, and the recent victory by Donna Edwards over “Bush Dog” Democratic congressperson Al Wynn in the Democratic primary there is another.
This combination of internal self-pressure/encouragement/threats have actually given the Democrats in Washington a bit of a spine, which they wouldn’t have had if they hadn’t had constant public pressure to actually “act like Democrats” instead of cowering in fear of the Republicans. That needs to be continued up here, in my view. There is a difference between having party discipline in caucus and being able to freely be critical of positions that aren’t helping the Liberal Party overall. If others wish to self-censor, feel free. I wont be one of those.
I guess I also need to ask Jason whether this is his own opinion, or whether he’s getting vibes about this from someone in the party, and he felt the need to post what he did. Regardless if it’s his own opinion or if its being channelled from sources in the OLO offices, if the party brass don’t like the fact they’re being criticized by the grassroots of the party, the simple way to fix that is to actually listen to the feedback and respond to it rather then bellyache over it. This party has become far too elitist, and I’m afraid I have to say Jason is putting forth an elitist view of what the grassroots should be doing, which is apparently to shut up and stop complaining.
Dion’s victory was in part carried by the grassroots of the party, not the caucus, and certainly not the party brass, and I thought his victory might help matters in doing some Liberal Party renewal, which is one reason I joined the Liberals after Dion’s victory. Unfortunately, it appears at times the party brass are determined to try to keep a lid on that and keep their hands over their ears, rather then listen to the people who make up the skin and bones of the party.
UPDATE: I see Steve got irritated at Jason’s blogpost about the same time I did (still waiting for your quirks meme list of 6 things that I tagged you with Steve 
) . I expect to see that list of bloggers to grow, by the way.
That post is a disgrace. Well said!!!