A week ago on dKos....Kos posted a story called
New dKos policy...
which was basically about how he was going to concentrate on Dean and Clark, "the only candidates with a chance of winning"...and be strictly positive about it and encourage others to do the same....
(and to which I responded with Don't Tread on Me...my honest, gut instinct response.)
It seems like that new policy lasted only about as long as it took for Kos to post this story about Dick Gephardt...and a herd of Kossacks to follow with a huge debate...about the physical appearance of the candidates...and an anti-Gep dreck-fest....
...which I'll take as a starting point for saying...
Maybe it's time for the whole Kos-o-sphere to look inward a bit.
As much as folks here like to lambast the Conventional Wisdom coming out of DC there is powerful cw running here at dKos...
it's a cw that runs on true believer energy...where it's obvious that x is true and y is wrong and anyone who even hints otherwise is cut down. I've found this true of the most inoccuous posts...to the extent that it really reduces the value of dKos as a forum for debates because substance is often replaced by hip insider banter or attacks based on fluff and style.
Yes, on the upside, dKos is a funny, ground-breaking, insightful and largely pro-Howard look at reinventing the Democratic Party and examining each day's news and polls...and I have to say I am thankful for Kos and the community here...period...
but on the downside dKos is a place where folks post things that border on the stupid, the offensive, or the naive...without ever getting called on it, because, at times, a sort of group think sets in.
Are there any Howard supporters out there who can see that this state of affairs ain't good for Dr. Dean?? Or Kossacks that read the current Gep story and said, like me, "Kos, what about that new policy?"
When I first posted here, the bulk of the "stupidity" was not coming from the Dean side...to be honest...that's really changed. To the extent that now many of the threads, Diary entries, and posts could easily be quoted unfavorably against both Dean and dKos.
Vapid, albeit funny, debates over whether Howard is hot or not...have become typical...as have profanity laced attacks on Kerry, Gephardt, Lieberman, and of course, Bush & co....
is this really how we want to come off?????
Something has changed here since Howard has become the clear front-runner. And while, to be fair, some of that change is keying off the negativity promoted by the candidates challenging Dean...
it's important to point out that, from this kid's pov, the level of debate has suffered and a powerful dKos cw effect has set in.
Heck, it kind of leaves me longing for a good old fashioned....Clark / Dean electability thread....
just kidding.