This is an open letter to the blog owner about my growing concern on the direction of DailyKos in the last 6 months. I came here 5+ years ago to this site and was excited to have a place that wanted to encourage Democrats to fight and win power from the evil Republicans that were destroying our country, taking away our rights and destroying our image in the world....
Then after a long blogfight...we won and won big...or did we...???
Update: Thanks for those of you who engaged in a constructive and positive manner...again you all make me proud to be a Kossack!!
I credit DKos with being the catalyst for the incredible victories in 2006 and 2008 that have prevented even more damage being done to this country. We replaced more wingnuts with Democrats in 5 years than at almost any time since the election of 1964 or 1936. We also:
- Beat back the Right Wing Spin Machine (RWSM) consisting of Karl Rove, Right Wing Talk Radio (RWTR) and Right Wing Cable Talk (RWCT). Despite their best efforts including the functional equivalent of billions of dollars of free air time...we won...
- Won a historic presidency against a War Hero and an upstart RW hero who had the potential to be a devastating power in this country. In addition we took down a likely presidential candidate, Mr Macacca in VA.
- We made historic reforms and pressured many Democrats to become more accountable to the people they represent. We successfully put progressive grass roots candidates in place who won seats that we thought previously were unwinnable by a progressive (NH CD-1 & 2 for example and OH Senate for another)
- We encouraged and successfully deployed a 50-state strategy that although not perfect is the current model for today and puts Republicans on the defensive rather than on offense.
- We beat back the establishment candidate for President in the Democratic party despite huge odds (even though I thought she would have made a great POTUS as well).
- We established a great feedback mechanism for the RWSM and false talking points that are regularly picked up by mainstream news organizations and other blogs.
- We established a place where likeminded individuals could come and debate and promote getting more and better Democrats into office instead of the evl RW Republicans...
But that has all changed, since the historic Obama victory...now it is all about how Progressive/Liberal can you be and not about continued electoral victory. DKos has morphed into another "Liberal Oasis" that has a huge following. And if you do not tow the Liberal/Progressive POV 1000%...then you are a RW troll, a traitor or an evil moderate DLCer and a few other choice names that I will not repeat
And if you are worried about political considerations and winning elections for Democrats then you are not pure enough of a progressive/liberal to be at DKos.
And if you are not Progressive/Liberal on every issue then you must not be worthy and should create your GBCW diary now. There are too many good bloggers who care deeply about DKos continuing not only to fight the good fight for policy but also to keep Democrats in power...which is why DKos was established. There are a lot of people in this country who are good people and want this country to succeed and change and not all of them, in fact not a majority of them are Liberals.
http://www.gallup.com/...
As many other people are in this country, my views are not monolythic, I have many liberal views, some moderate views and even a few conservative views. I thought when I read the FAQs at DKos, I had found a blogging home...but I sadly feel like this site is just becoming another site like many of the other Liberal Only sites as more and more of the people who have views that are not purely Liberal are shunned, made fun of and actively chased away...and worst of all called Republicans!!!!
http://www.dkosopedia.com/...
As the FAQ's famously say:
This is a Democratic blog, a partisan blog. One that recognizes that Democrats run from left to right on the ideological spectrum, and yet we're all still in this fight together. We happily embrace centrists like NDN's Simon Rosenberg and Howard Dean, conservatives like Martin Frost and Brad Carson, and liberals like John Kerry and Barack Obama. Liberal? Yeah, we're around here and we're proud. But it's not a liberal blog. It's a Democratic blog with one goal in mind: electoral victory. And since we haven't gotten any of that from the current crew, we're one more thing: a reform blog. The battle for the party is not an ideological battle. It's one between establishment and anti-establishment factions. And as I've said a million times, the status quo is untenable
I believe in the FAQ's purpose of this site...but sadly many here do not. I think DKos is at the crossroads of either continuing towards its roots as a victory site for Democrats or just another "me to" Liberal Blog.
Do we still believe that DKos is still a blog for all of the Democratic party activists or just those who are Liberals and Progressives? I came here for more than a "rah-rah" site for Liberals...I can get that in 20 other different blogs...I came here for a site that was dedicated to electoral victory for Democrats...all Democrats...even those I do not agree with 100% and even those who piss me off sometimes...because you know what...a RW Republican is 100x worse...
So Kos...a plea...write a FP Diary on how we are all in this together or just let us know that you really want to change the purpose to be another LW Blog...Very Truly Yours...A Huge Fan!!!!!!