Andy Axel tells it like it is in a comment below which I shall post on the front page here...

This is the daily friggin' battle.

We elect a Democrat into the governor's office who trashes workers' comp, throws people off their health insurance, his support for Senate candidates nets the loss of the Senate majority, he chides supporters of the Kerry candidacy in 2004, and we help to re-elect him anyway because JIM! Bryson is such a nutsack.

We throw our support behind Harold Ford Jr. even though he quickly proceeds to sell out progressive causes throughout his campaign, and watch helplessly as he jumps into a cozy seat in the GOP-lite DLC chair.

We're forced to endure multiple indignities on progressive issues like gay marriage because stupid Democrats walk right into these traps set for us by Republicans, and because, well, we suck at framing issues and try to lead by following.

We get the John Fords and Ward Crutchfields and Dave Cooleys and Doug Henrys and Jerry Coopers and Jimmy Naifehs working on our account. Big whoop.

It's the daily death by a thousand cuts, and the guy almost always wielding the knife for the coup de grace in this godforsaken place always seems to have a donkey on his lapel. (And I do mean "his.") And then we get to play laughingstock to the smug, self-righteous "fuck the South" types. Not saying that Tennessee doesn't earn it at times, but Brittney Gilbert sure as hell didn't. These people conveniently forget: If Al Gore had spent five minutes here, he'd probably be president today.

This isn't any kind of news to anyone, I'm certain.

Now we have to sweat national bloggers enforcing their own vision of partisan piety, and doing so at the expense of people with the least influence and zero actual power.

Et tu, PatriotBoy?

To which I can add... not much right now, because that pretty much sums it up. I'm still formulating my thoughts. I will have more on this later.