Does anyone forget when to the radical left George Bush was the Antichrist and moderate Dems were the heretics? Does The Daily Kos (”We are the mainstream.”), Joe Lieberman, and Ned Lamont ring a bell?
Yup, sure do. Have a friend who was active at the start of the whole Nutroots thing, and I used to enjoy dropping email grenades that would spur big fights between him and our more establishment Dem friends.
But what happened is that Nutroots got coopted by the Dems and pulled back into the fold. To a certain extent they got the President they wanted in Obama, but I’m also convinced that Markos and the other leadership were bought off, if not with money than probably with flattery and access to power.
I haven’t seen the GOPe try that with the Tea Party. If they did I’m not sure it would work: the Tea Party leaders are older and a lot more experienced (and therefore skepical and resistant to plying than the Nutroots kiddos were.