Al Franken to Liberals: Don't Check Out Now
LAS VEGAS -- The liberal base is dissatisfied with the Democratic establishment, but Sen. Al Franken told them at the closing of the Netroots Nation conference: "No matter how frustrated you are, you can't check out now."
"It only took a few years for progressives to establish a foothold in Congress, but it's going to take a little further" to enact a progressive agenda, he said.
Throughout the Netroots conference, the year's largest gathering of progressive activists and bloggers, attendees lamented the lack of a public option in health care reform, the prospect of watching Democrats scale back Social Security and other liberal let downs.
But what's worse, Franken said, is that "Republicans have been making plans to take back the things we did get. They'll implement a truly dangerous agenda."
One of the most important fights progressives should take up, Franken said, is Net Neutrality, the principle that Internet Service Providers should be prohibited from favoring certain content on the Internet.
"Net neutrality is the First Amendment issue of our time," he said.
Speculating on what the Internet could morph into under the Republicans' preferred lack of regulation, Franken asked the audience of bloggers how long it would take before the Fox News website loads significantly more quickly than the Daily Kos website.
"If you want to protect the free flow of information in this country, you have to help me fight this," he said.
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