I too am delighted by John Kerry's decision to post here on Daily Kos. It speaks volumes to the viability and importance of this community and the Netroots in general. It seems like eons ago when the Kerry campaign felt compelled to remove the link to Daily Kos from their website because of Kos's attack on paid mercenaries in Iraq.
In terms politicians can understand, Daily Kos is like a big town hall meeting and when big name politicians drop in, nothing but good can come of it.
But I am not so easily wooed. In this town hall meeting, the questions are not screened, protesters are not dragged kicking and screaming from the room, and speaking truth to power is as common as dirt.
So let me speak some truth now: John Kerry had his chance. He wasted it.
Now, I like John Kerry and have no desire to rehash the painful 2004 election. But it is instructive in terms of where we stand and where we need to be in 2008. And I have little doubt that Kerry's decision to post here is not a component of his desire to run again.
I am also aware that many here, including myself, believe it quite possible that Kerry actually won in 2004. This is irrelevant to my point. I am not claiming Kerry wasted his chance at victory in 2004. I am claiming that he wasted his chance to run a meaningful campaign.
It's the accountability stupid.
In all the banter back and forth about what went wrong in 2004, I've yet to hear anyone address the most obvious error of the Kerry campaign: failing to hold George Bush accountable.
What is it but a lack of accountability that allows George Bush to squander the commonwealth, blunder our foreign policy, repeatedly lie to the American people, and work tirelessly to enact policies that are not supported by the vast majority of Americans and still be re-elected to his office?
The essence of democracy is accountability. The idea is simple: unlike a monarchy, when our leaders fail to perform, or otherwise neglect or abuse their offices, they are challenged for those failures by their opponents and voted out. This system has been known to work well.
Does anyone really believe that George Bush and Dick Cheney were even remotely held accountable in 2004? Did you not go through most of that campaign in a state of suspended disappointment that the Democrats, finally in possession of a bully pulpit, refused to speak the truth about George Bush's true character and performance?
It is impossible for me to list all of the potential targets of George Bush's presidency. What we ended up with was the al Qaqa weapons dump.
We all wanted to believe. So we rallied around the Democratic convention. We rallied while speaker after speaker came muzzled to the microphone to prop up John Kerry while only slightly taking George Bush to the mat. The consultants and handlers believed that the election was about John Kerry. They believed that what we needed was to stay positive. They actually got paid for those beliefs.
I would have told them for free that the campaign against an incumbent is always about the incumbent. But I didn't think they were so stupid and inept that they didn't know that already.
The ever-widening gap
We here in the Netroots are often derided as the angry base. But we are angry because that is the appropriate response to the truth of our country's situation. And we know the truth because we have the power of information. No longer are we chained and shackled to the lies of the corporate media.
The 2004 campaign was the wasted opportunity to spread that truth to the rest of the nation. And the question we must all ask is who do we trust to seize that opportunity the next time we have the big microphone?
Molly Ivins has come around. Increasingly, more and more people are coming around. This is not Thomas Jefferson's America anymore. And the Democratic party is no longer his Party of the People. The wolves have invaded the henhouse.
The problems facing our people and our country are monumental. On every front, our long held values, principles and even our way of life are being relentlessly attacked. The right-wing agenda is so radical, so violently opposed to the very essence of what it means to be American that there is no longer room for compromise. There is no moderate response to radicalism.
The gap between to Net-roots and the Beltway is widening. Posting to Daily Kos will not reverse that. Once the novelty wears, and celebrity glow dims, we are left with what we've always had: a canyon sized difference between the vision of America depicted by the beltway establishment and the real America vigorously assembled and displayed here dialy.
The revolution could be televised
Ms. Ivins is a canary in a coalmine. Though somewhat of a populist and always a good progressive, even she acknowledges that the numbing tones of politics as usual had worn her down. She offers hope of rehabilitation...
The recent death of Gene McCarthy reminded me of a lesson I spent a long, long time unlearning, so now I have to re-learn it. It's about political courage and heroes, and when a country is desperate for leadership. There are times when regular politics will not do, and this is one of those times. There are times a country is so tired of bull that only the truth can provide relief.
The next great leader of the Democratic party will either be a rehabilitated insider, or, most likely, someone from the outside. They will have to have enough conviction to buck the establishment and enough political finesse to survive.
They will have to know what they are up against and be serious about the fight. (I hate to post that picture, but it clearly demonstrates both a lack of political finnesse and seriousness. What the hell were they thinking? These people were supposed to be pros. Our country was in peril in 2004 as much as it is now. This photo is more than symbolic.)
Democracy vs. Corporatism
These are serious times. Our country is under attack, not just by radical Islamic militants, but by neo-fascist, oligarchs who see democracy as an impediment to profit, by corporate power which strives to indermine at every step the institutions of our Democracy to facilitate their quest for more power and wealth.
While the Abramoff case may be a Republican scandal, the underlying corruption he represents is not. It is spread like molasses through both sides of the isle. The forces of the status quo are powerful indeed. They will do anything to defeat challenge.
We need leaders with the courage and conviction to wage that fight.
There are simple truths about the state of our nation. And, as Ms. Ivins points out, the majority of Americans know what needs to be done:
What kind of courage does it take, for mercy's sake? The majority of the American people (55 percent) think the war in Iraq is a mistake and that we should get out. The majority (65 percent) of the American people want single-payer health care and are willing to pay more taxes to get it. The majority (86 percent) of the American people favor raising the minimum wage. The majority of the American people (60 percent) favor repealing Bush's tax cuts, or at least those that go only to the rich. The majority (66 percent) wants to reduce the deficit not by cutting domestic spending, but by reducing Pentagon spending or raising taxes.
The majority (77 percent) thinks we should do "whatever it takes" to protect the environment. The majority (87 percent) thinks big oil companies are gouging consumers and would support a windfall profits tax. That is the center, you fools. WHO ARE YOU AFRAID OF?
Who are they afraid of? That's easy: they're afraid of the real power in this country. They are afraid of those who write the checks.
We can demand that our leaders fight for us, but we are going to have to give them safe haven to do so. Most Democrats are good people in a very difficult situation. They must have money to win, but that money often comes from interests that are opposed to the very principles that Democrats stand for. The result is that "spineless", hollowed out message we constantly hear emanating from the Democratic leadership. But the result is also imminent defeat. The more Democrats find themselves siding with the monied interests, the more they lose their purpose. This loss of purpose is directly reflected in the losses of the last two decades.
We've got your back. Do you have ours?
We have opened an opportunity for Democrats to come in from the cold. Howard Dean's campaign did nothing if it did not demonstrate the power of the Netroots to raise money. Democrats have a choice now. They can stand with us, or they can stand with the status quo.
I like John Kerry. I appreciate his service to our country and his notable accomplishments in the Senate. But as Molly Ivins says so well:
Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone...
If the Washington-based party can't get up and fight, we'll find someone who can