Arianna is right that "It wasn't elected officials who led the struggle for civil rights or the drive for women's rights or the fight to end the war in Vietnam or the war in Iraq - it was the people." More specifically, it was the people making politicians more scared to support the status quo than to support change.

Yes, we're back to the concept of fear - and how to make it work for positive ends.

Progressives too often assume - probably because we are optimists - that Democrats will do the right thing if they just have power. We want to believe - even as Democratic politicians have undermined our hopes time and time again, whether it was Bill Clinton ramming NAFTA through Congress, or congressional Democrats giving the most unpopular president in history blank checks for the most unpopular war in history.

But that's not how political power works.

Politicians react to fear - fear of being thrown out of office. And so fear is the fuel of change. If we want real change - if we want Democrats to stand up on the war - we have to make them fear for their jobs if they continue supporting the war.

Ned Lamont proved this thesis. When he defeated Joe Lieberman in the 2006 Connecticut Democratic primary, he made every other Democratic incumbent afraid - and suddenly, more Democrats started echoing Lamont's strong antiwar messages. It was a big change.

Of course, many of these same Democrats have continued supporting the war through their votes. And so that means we have to ramp up the accountability machine. We have to make Democrats fear for their jobs should they keep supporting this war. To put it in FDR terms, for those of us who want an end to this war, we have nothing to fear but a lack of fear itself.