Is there a real call to primary Democrats for not being loyal enough to liberals? Could this be something we'll be hearing about in the next couple of months? "It's probably blogger hubris," said Crooks and Liars blogger and prolific author Dave Neiwert. "Political naiveté. That gives us energy but it also blinds us to cold hard political reality of the world."

So there's not an actual get-off-the-couch effort to primary the president or act like the tea party in any way. That's not what progressives are really talking about at Netroots this year.

It's not really about the president right now, anyway. It's not an election year. The GOP primary is barely ramping up. This time all micro-causes have fallen under the same "root" issue: Unions. Not only have union leaders descended on the conference. The gruff plainspoken Leo Gerard, President of the United Steelworkers, was on a panel about combating corporate power in the wake of the Citizens United decision. Union leaders are out in force talking on a variety of subjects.

Suddenly, "like Wisconsin" is a phrase thrown around. It was in Madison this past spring where the press reported 70,000 people turned out on one cold Saturday to protest Gov. Scott Walker's (R) stripping collective bargaining rights away from public workers. And that 70,000 figure doesn't even count the families who showed up first thing in the morning to walk around the capitol with their signs showing their support for the unions before going about their regular errands. It was in Madison where the prized "youth" turned out. It was old and young people who work for a living. Firefighters and elevator operators, teachers and students. It's where all progressives got together as one voice saying one thing: Shame, shame, Scott Walker!

In the early 1900s, the labor movement was the primer for a range of progressive pet causes: Women's suffrage, temperance and the New Deal. It's only recently that liberals got branded as latte-sipping arugula eaters. Now the attack on the unions translates into an attack on all progressives. Reproductive rights, environmental issues, corporate personhood, media consolidation, election finance -- they all seem to identify that they are at some point "like Wisconsin."

It appears the attempt to bust the unions was just the thing to actually unify Democrats and dole out a knockout dose for their micro-cause-ism.