Are the “netroots” the Democrats’ Moral Majority?

The Internet-powered antiwar left gives the Democrats grassroots energy, just like religious fundamentalists have for the Republicans since 1980.

But the netroots can be dictatorial and extreme, like the Religious Right.

Here’s how powerful they are: Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid both were afraid to buck them on the Iraq-spending bill.

Forty years ago, the anti-Vietnam left drove Middle America into the arms of Richard Nixon. Could that happen again?

The pursuit of the netroots led John Edwards to the edge of disaster – calling for antiwar protests instead of ceremonies honoring veterans on Memorial Day. He wisely backed off:

The official “truth-teller” in the Democratic Party today is Al Gore, because he’s not running for President – at least, not yet. He takes a blowtorch to Bush over Iraq. But he’s notably loath to call for an immediate pullout:

“Taking charge of the war policy and extricating our troops as quickly as possible without making a horrible situation even worse is a little like grabbing a steering wheel in the middle of a skid.”

Gore says our objective should be:

“To get our troops out of there as soon as possible while simultaneously observing the moral duty that all of us share – including those of us who opposed the war in the first instance – to remove our troops in a way that doesn’t do further avoidable damage to the people who live there.”

That’s the moral issue. The political issue is whether the American people will trust Democrats to take the steering wheel. Especially as the netroots grow louder and stronger.

If there is a terrorist attack on American soil before the 2008 election, where will the netroots have left the Democrats?

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