Instapundit often takes note when people respond as “a pack, not a herd”, like here, here, here and here.  Meaning that herd animals respond as a unit, but pack members tailor individual activity to both the situation and their packmates’ decisions.  Individual initiative plus feedback.

Fervent Democrats, and those to the “left” of them, are not pack animals.  Nor do they even retain the independence of herd animals, which do occasionally wander into new territory. 

No, to understand political activists you must turn entomologist.  They are insects, and theirs is a hive mind.

Take this WaPo/Dave Weigel/JournoList  situation.  SitRep: Dave’s a leftist demagogue who posed (badly) as a moderate Washington Post “journalist” reporting on conservative politics.   He was also on JournoList, a 400-member club of fellow travellers.  Its purpose was to harmonize  “independent” voices and help them spin the news to further their political and social ends.  Buzz buzz buzz.  Many voices, one message.  See?

This will be a recurring theme, so no need to belabor the point here.  More in later posts.