Lambert and Chris are doing a little well deserved back patting, pointing out that without the Netroots, yesterday's victories would've been a lot less momentous. I basically agree. If there was record "voter anger" and tremendous potential in the electorate, it's still the case that Netroots activism helped the mostly clueless Dems take advantage of that. That's the good news. Here's the bad news: starting tomorrow, the job for the Netroots community just got harder, more important, and requiring of even greater effort.

By all means, take today and the rest of this week to celebrate, crow, preen, make the neener neener sound at every Republican you know...but know that you've got a lot of work to do. A lot.

It's simple, really. So long as Democrats were the minority party, most of our job had to do with what I like to call being a Resistance Historian. That is, there really wasn't that much for us to do but sit back and document the atrocities. But now that time has passed. If we are to restore Constitutional Democracy in this country, and ensure that we will never again have such a rubberstamp, fascism enabling Congress, it means we have to take the next step.

This is kind of a throwaway post cause I've got to run, but here are some of the idea that come to mind:

1. A lot of Democrats still don't "get it." They think of the netroots as a combination of bank teller, annoying teenage neighbor, and uncomprehending rabble. They need to hear from us, regularly reminding them that we're all that, and more. Because we do have money to give (What's our motivation to do so, Mr. Democrat?); we are annoyingly uncompromising in our desire to see action, hear accounting, and get results from our government; and we are completely baffled as to why "business as usual" is the wisest course. We're also the group that's changing the party from the ground up. Democrats need to see and hear this from us daily.

2. Politicians are lazy creatures of habit. If we don't force them to do otherwise, I guaran-fucking-tee you that they will slip back into the do-nothing, "bipartisan" ways of compromise, indolence, and irrelevance. This Democratic majority isn't made up of 250 angry radicals, it's made up of a bunch of people who for the most part, are just as clueless as the Republicans on issues like the war, the economy, media reform, health care... Someone has to ahem, "help" (read: force) them to craft the correct policies on those issues. If we don't, big corporations and special interests will. Guess what kids? That means you have to get smart and savvy about the legislative process. You've got until January.

3. Our role as "the new media" just got a whole lot bigger. Don't think for a minute that the Republican strategists don't understand what happened here; they've got the numbers and the money to pay for the analysis, and they are going to come after us, as well as pressure their ratfuckers and mediawhores to double their efforts to discredit us. It's time for us to turn it up a notch, work together more often and with directed purpose, and otherwise act like the Fourth Column they make us out to be. Momentum is everything, and we've got it. The voters who heard the first whispers of "those bloggers" this election are ripe, ripe, ripe for conversion. Let's not drop this particular ball, but instead run with it, and make sure we all remind everyone who voted or took part in a campaign that we're here, we're pissed as hell, we're well informed, and they should join us. While turning off the TV and dropping the Times subscription while they're at it.

Those are just a few reasons why I think the plate just got a lot bigger. But with responsibility comes opportunity; not just jobs for people like Chris and me, but for all of us who care about responsible, Constitutional government. We've got an opening here, and we've got to move on it.

Pick up the phone. Send an email. Closely follow the words and actions of the recently elected Democrat of your choice, and blog about it. Pass that post on to everyone you know. This is our first taste of real power, and if we stay on target, more could be coming our way. Laziness is just not an option.