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(Note:  I’m in Connecticut and would like to organize some sort of get-together for readers.  If you’d like to join us let me know in the comments.)

David Sirota’s post at the HuffPo, echoing both Jen Nix and Glenn Greenwald, brings up a subject I’m happy to see taking root in the progressive blogosphere — the need for the netroots to support liberal writers.  One of the things people have been mentioning as we travel across the country is the need to provide a counterbalance for the wingnut welfare that interjects the abject ravings of eliminationist fantasists and racist mall rats into the national discourse far in excess of anything they’d ever achieve by virtue of their own merits. It’s the reason we started the FDL Book Salon.  We’ve got to show up for our own.  

Congratulations are in order for David, whose book Hostile Takeover just hit the NYT Bestseller list.  You would think that establishment media would be relieved at not having to singe their eye sockets with another Anne Coulter book and would be happy to review intelligent, energetic, well-researched books like David’s and Glenn Greenwald’s, but you would be wrong. 

Says Sirota:

That work we are doing – and the growing energy behind our movement – is clearly frightening the Establishment. You can see it in the Establishment’s vicious reaction to progressive’s recent books. Al Franken and Al Gore’s books were both attacked with dishonest lies. Markos and Jerome’s book was slandered by Matt Drudge. My book was smeared by a bitter, angry reporter at the Washington Post who seemed appalled that someone had the nerve to expose the putrid corruption growing in Washington, D.C. like gangrene. And, incredibly, Glenn Greenwald’s book has been treated to a vow of silence – with almost no major news outlets even reviewing it.

But this treatment is all a good sign. As Gandhi once said: “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.” This very thing happened to me personally. When I first decided to write Hostile Takeover, many in Washington’s elite circles brushed me off as if I was crazy for even thinking about writing about corruption. Then, as hard-hitting parts of the book seeped out, they tried to downplay and ridicule the cold, hard facts they couldn’t answer for on the merits. Then they fought me through dishonest attacks. But now, at the end of the day, it’s clear who the winner has been. This is the same thing for the progressive movement as a whole. Politicians have long ignored us. Organizations like the corporate-funded DLC have ridiculed us. Now, those who haven’t joined us are fighting us. But we are most decidedly on the verge of big wins all over this country.

I guess traditional media types would rather continue to fluff the bullies who beat them up and steal their lunch money than support those who would challenge them.  Cowardly, but telling.

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