The president is going down, and DKos is the reason. There was a slight seismic shift this week, and I believe and certainly hope that it is the beginning of the end for BushCo.
When the Bush presidency falls, it will be the first time the Internet has brought down a president. It will be the blogosphere that is his undoing, more specifically the left-wing blogosphere, and even more specifically DailyKos as the leader in the fight for truth, justice, and the return of the American way. In the process the right wing of the blogosphere will be revealed for what it is, not a marketplace of ideas but a conduit for talking points. It will be more and more marginalized as the sheer absence of content finally bores all the the hardest core to the point of ignoring it. I don't think even the most optimistic Kossacks realize how much power the blogosphere will have over the future of politics.
As we know, the blogosphere is the only reason the SCLM was unable to ignore important stories. Initially it was Trent Lott, then Gannon-Guckert, but the event that will turn the tide is Downing Street, a story that even the MSM agrees is only a story because of us.
Representative John Conyers was either ignored or marginalized by the SCLM when he attempted to shine some light on the corruption revealed by the DSM, and the corrupt wing of the Congress did all it could to prevent him from even discussing the subject. This event revealed their contempt for the right of the people to petition the government for redress of grievances.
However, it is no longer possible for the SCLM and the GOP to stifle dissent by ignoring it. Rep. Conyers held his meeting in a broom closet, took his grievances to the blogosphere with his letter in response to Dana Milbank's hatchet job, millions of people saw it and agreed, and now the rabble are gathering, not in the "protest zones" but literally at the gates of the White House, waving hundreds of thousands of signatures on their petition. At night, when we are not milling about the gates of the palace, we come here to plot our next move, and we do so in public, allowing anyone to watch the progress of our discussion and to take part in it. That is the great thing about truth; you don't have to talk about it behind closed doors.
Our weapon is one never seen before in politics, the ability to shine the light on anything. As we know, there have been abuses, such as Rathergate, the Swift Boat Liars and the Thune campaign. But the days are numbered for these abuses, because bloggers are everywhere now, and any information of importance will eventually surface and the evidence for and against any claims can be scrutinized from millions of angles. Truth will come out as the right wing's credibility implodes from the weight of its hatred, corruption and dependence on lies.
While Kossacks and the left blogosphere do not speak with a single voice, as the right does, that is our strength, because through our internal disagreement we are forced to explore and defend our points of view rather than repeating what we are told. The dishonesty, intellectual vacuum, and top-down nature of the right-wing blogosphere prevents it from allowing free-ranging discussions. Dissenting voices are frozen out and banned, just as they are in right-wing politics, and eventually these bloggers, whose number of visitors can no longer keep pace with the growth of DKos, will be reduced to a small hard core of wizened Gollums, sitting in a dark corner, mumbling about the unfairness of it all.
The blogosphere came along just in time, as "Freedom of the Press" has become limited by design to those who own one. Until recently individual voices were drowned out by the noise made by the media monsters, but now an inconvenient fact known to only one person can no longer be ignored, because even one person can be heard, and truth and wisdom will rise to the top of the marketplace of ideas despite the attempts to distract us. In the future everything politicians have ever said or done will be available and will be used against them, because the blogosphere never forgets and anything you have ever put on the record can now be found.
We have an awesome power, one never seen in human history, the power to unite millions of intellects seamlessly into a single cause and the power to research anything. Let's hope we use it wisely and that truth remains stronger than fiction, but in any event, the future of politics is being modified forever by DailyKos et al. When we regain power, and we will, let's prevent abuses by our own side by continuing to shine the light even on those with whom we agree.
Remember this moment. John Conyers will some day be regarded as the Daniel Webster of his time, a politician whose integrity, courage and magnificent determination rise above politics in the search for truth and justice. Until now I have been undecided as to who should be our next president, but whether or not it comes to pass, we could not do any better than Mr. Conyers.