Somerby really lays it down…

…We’d guess that the press corps’ problem with Dems is, in large part, a matter of class. Human beings have always been tribal, and our modern, tribal national politics is largely a tribalism of class. We haven’t discussed this matter before, and we won’t be skilled in our descriptions. But it’s fairly clear that tribal connections have long defined our two major parties, and have done so more and more since the time of the GOP “Southern Strategy.”

Increasingly, the GOP is the tribe of the upper-class, older American order—and the Democrats are the tribe of everyone else. Everyone who doesn’t fit in the old order has found their way to the Dem coalition. The Dems are the party of The Other—of the “lower-class;” of racial minorities; of gays; of uppity women. The Republicans are the party of the traditional upper-class ideal—and of all those who will swear allegiance to that orders’ values. This does not mean that Dems are always right—or that Reps are always wrong—about issues involving class and race. It does mean that the parties represent two different tribes—and that many people align themselves based on tribal impulses.

To which tribe do our millionaire pundits belong? Please. In some ways, Tim Russert defines this group’s class membership; he flies to a multimillion-dollar home on Nantucket to write a book about living in Buffalo. (This doesn’t mean that he’s not a nice person.) Consciously or otherwise, we’d guess that modern scribes “see” themselves as what they are—as part of a fatuous millionaire class. Clinton never belonged to that class; Gore was more or less a class traitor.

Modern reporters worship at the alter of fame and financial success. For them, reporting has become “fun,” “entertainment” and “sport”—even if, as in Carlson’s presentation to Imus, they happen to know someone who needs major help from a government program. But in many cases, these people have stopped caring about—or identifying with—the people who still form the Dem coalition. The press corps adores upper-class blacks; Rice and Powell are their greatest untouchables. But to all appearances, they no longer identify with major figures, like Clinton and Gore, who have tended to stick with The Others.

We humans have always stuck with Our Own—and have been inclined to look down on The Other. In The Iliad, at the moment of truth, Nestor tells the roiling troops about the important of tribal loyalty—of loyalty to the hearth, to the clan:

Lost to the clan,
lost to the hearth, lost to the old ways, that one
who lusts for the horror of war with his own people…

To the extent that Major Dems like Clinton and Gore speak for “the people, not the powerful”—to the extent that they “feel the pain” of working people—they have declared themselves “lost to the clan.” The modern upper-class tribal consensus is embarrassed by—and uninterested in—the problems of people who may need Medicare, or Medicaid, or Social Security. Ruling classes have always tended to look down on the needs of the great unwashed. And, by virtue of their vast salaries, opinion leaders in the modern press corps are now part of a high ruling class. That doesn’t make them bad people—though some of them may be. But human nature remains unchanged—and their salaries are vast.

Back from vacation and it has been a hopping few days in mediawatchdogsylvania, especially with the news that Peter Daou is now working for Hillary Clinton…

I have been offered – and accepted – what I believe is a unique opportunity to help close the triangle: joining Senator Clinton’s team as a blog advisor to facilitate and expand her relationship with the netroots. There are endless possibilities for Clinton-netroots collaborations, from Net Neutrality to the Privacy Bill of Rights to voting reform to so many others critical issues. Digby, one of the progressive blog world’s sharpest writers, said this: “Last week Hillary introduced what I think should be a primary plank of the Democratic Party: A Privacy Bill Of Rights…. Hillary said in her speech the other day: ‘privacy is synonymous with liberty.’ This is correct. We give it up far too thoughtlessly in our culture and its going to come back to bite us if we don’t wake to the fact that big powerful forces are poking into our lives in unprecedented ways and will use the information they get to force us into little boxes they design.”

The past few months have been a challenging period in the growth of the blogosphere, with the YearlyKos convention marking the “arrival” of the blogs as a political force (at least in the eyes of many mainstream reporters and political operatives). But YearlyKos has also touched off a series of harsh attacks against the netroots and specifically Daily Kos and its founder Markos Moulitsas. As blog influence continues to grow, we can expect more intense fire directed at the blogosphere by those who have a vested interest in undermining it.

One of the standard practices of blog detractors is to use the comments of the anonymous few to tarnish the genuine passion and sincerity of the many millions who log on to express their views and to connect with other denizens of the Internet. The “angry left” is a stereotype used to pigeonhole left-leaning bloggers, but the truth is that far from being a bastion of ideological rigidity, the blog world is a hard-hitting and free-wheeling discussion among Americans of all political stripes. These attacks won’t weaken the community; on the contrary, this nascent power base is only beginning to make its presence felt. It will reach fuller potential with the participation of Democratic leaders and responsible reporters.

As a true believer in the importance of the medium, I’m thrilled about Senator Clinton’s interest in building this bridge with the online community and I intend to do everything I can to make it as productive as possible. And as a New Yorker, I look forward to aiding Senator Clinton’s re-election efforts this November.