Many progressive blogs, radio shows and television shows devote relatively little time/resources to examing how/why Democrats/progressive organizations are coming up short, and a huge amount of time/resources to telling us how crazy truly irrelevant people like Sarah Palin or Tom Tancredo are. These are people who do not even hold a public office, but who are perpetually featured and promoted by conservative, traditional and - worst of all - progressive media as Important and worthy of Attention. Obviously, the Palins and the Tancredos are extremists. But as I said, they possess no actual legislative power. They are relevant only to the extent that they are made relevant by us - and the “us” is the conservative media, the traditional media and, yes, progressives. You can argue, of course, that they are “relevant” because there’s a relatively small amount of Americans who are their fans, and in a country of 300 million people, “relatively small amount” still means a few million people. But even that “relevance” is media generated - the Palins and Tancredos develop that fan base largely through the media attention they garner - the media attention that their positions (read: unelected celebrities) and fringe ideas don’t actually warrant.
