The Democratic Party has at least ideologically supported the kind of participation we see from the progressive blogosphere, but now it's a case of "be careful what you wish for."  I'm not sure the party knows what to do with us. Frankly, that's because they're using an outdated right-wing playbook which calls for information control, something the blogosphere defies by definition.

If you're going to have participatory government, you have to listen to the governed.  Controlling the flow of information just blocks access to the governed. My advice then to the Democratic Party is simply listen to progressive bloggers (not pollsters) and acknowledge what we're calling for -- which is basically for the party to move forward not left.  That's apparent from the netroots checklist below, compiled from my review of numerous political blogs. Some items may be overstated and I may have forgotten other important issues, but generally, speaking, we want: