Me getting one of Kos's famous hugs.
I have no clue what Markos had in mind when he started this site. Wikipedia says:
Daily Kos was founded by Markos Moulitsas (Kos from the last syllable of his first name, his nickname while in the military) in 2002.
Somewhere on the Daily Kos site it says this:
Founded on May 26, 2002, Daily Kos is the premier online political community with 2.5 million unique visitors per month and a quarter of a million registered users. It is at once a news organization, community, and activist hub. Among luminaries posting diaries on the site are President Jimmy Carter, Senator Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, and dozens of other senators, congressmen, and governors. Even more exciting than that, however, are the hundreds of thousands of regular Americans that have used Daily Kos to shape a political world once the exclusive domain of the rich, connected, and powerful.
I think that may need to be updated a bit because I’m pretty sure those numbers are WAY low and, A. Whitney Brown isn’t listed as one of the luminaries posting diaries.
I’m still not sure what Kos had in mind when he started this blog. It’s something I meant to ask him if I got a chance in NC but when I had the chance I didn’t ask. I guess it’s possible that this was his goal from the beginning:
Even more exciting than that, however, are the hundreds of thousands of regular Americans that have used Daily Kos to shape a political world once the exclusive domain of the rich, connected, and powerful.
He has certainly given us the chance to do that. Individually and together we have a lot of power to shape the political world we live in and we share that with each other every day.
Did he also think he was creating a forum where members of the community would grow to love each other? A blog whose members would pitch in money and caring messages of hope to create quilts for members in need of a tangible reminder of community?
Did he think he was putting together a group of people who would pay to heat dozens of stranger’s houses on two Native American Reservations winter after winter? Or supply a food pantry and school children each fall at another Native American Reservation?
Did Kos know there would be a daily diary about pooties and woozles? Was that even in his realm of consciousness? And yet he fiercely protects these diaries. “Don’t mess with the Pootie people!”
Did he have any clue that we would raise money for people to buy new computers, repair cars and homes, moving expenses, pay rent and medical bills (for humans and pooties and woozles), organ transplants (humans only…so far), and sadly, funerals?
I find it hard to believe that he could have had this planned or even foreseen that it would happen. I remember reading once that this site was meant to elect “more and better Democrats”. Maybe that’s what Markos had in mind when he started Daily Kos, but you don’t have to spend too much time here to know that we are so much more and way better than even that. All because of one person. Kos.
One person can make a difference. Maybe not as big a difference as Daily Kos is making but every difference counts, a difference is a difference no matter how small.
So I want to tell you the story of how I made a difference which involves a lot of other people making a difference and involves Daily Kos facilitating the differences.
My story starts in Florida and California with 2 guys, a political candidate and Dr. Ferguson (Fergie) Reid Jr. Now, all of my story won’t be precise but I can get you details if you insist. Some of the names have been changed to protect folks who I suspect are not all that innocent but the point remains the same and the point is the same for you as it is for me. One person can make a difference, that’s the point.
Fergie has a regular golf partner and they talk life, the universe and everything, including politics while they play. Fergie’s golf buddy is a BIG TIME fundraiser and he asks Fergie to come to a meeting with this political candidate. Fergie says that he doesn’t have any money to give to a candidate but he can help in other ways. Sometimes information is valuable, worth way more than money.
He goes to this very small meeting with only a few people, and tells the candidate that the best way for him to win is to make sure that there is a Democrat running in every race. There are 120 House seats, 20 Senate seats and 27 Congressional districts; they have to run a democratic candidate in every one.
That’s what Fergie starts working on. He starts with the easy to find stuff; who is on the ballot in the primary. He identifies races with sacrificial lambs and starts calling them. He does whatever he can to help them. If they are a war veteran he tells them to contact vet groups for support. If they are animal people, who for instance, own horses he tells them to contact the animal groups and horse clubs for support.
These are rookie candidates with no strategy, no money and no people. So Fergie gives them idea after idea and tells them to go fishing – to drop a line in and see what bites. He does this at every level of the ballot and helps these guys get coordinated.
He does this in every single race, especially in the races that are considered unimportant to the hierarchy of the DNC; the county commissioners, the school board, even the dog catchers (everyone says that but I don’t really think there are dog catchers anymore). He does this because people are more likely to know the little people running for the little offices; they are their neighbors and their kids’ teachers. They show up to vote for them and once they’re there they vote for everyone on the ballot. So you have to get candidates running to get the people there to vote.
Ah, but the powers that be at the DNC don’t quite see it that way. They like sure things and they like to win big. They don’t get the difference between losing big and losing small.
Our own Chris Reeves gets it. He says:
This is why having a Democrat on the ballot, even in a race that is unlikely to prevail is important. The lowest person on the ballot seeking office will be the one who interacts with voters most directly and will help drive turnout in not just that election cycle but future election cycles.
A democrat who runs a race that they don't win has two ways that they can lose:
* They can lose [small] expanding democratic/progressive ideas and growing the potential future base for future voters.
OR
* They can lose [big] trying to run as a low-priority candidate who runs like a Republican, so while they are losing they inadvertently take out any future infrastructure behind them.
This is the importance of running good candidates even in small races.
So the DNC’s candidate loses, not by much, by 1%. 65,000 votes. The amount of people it takes to fill a football stadium. Before the candidate loses, Fergie has not only been talking to any and all candidates he can he’s also been combing the internet looking for news and articles about politics and the candidates.
He finds a blog called Beach Peanuts. He likes the bloggers writing so calls her up. She, (inkberry here on DKos) leads him to Vet Wife (also here on DKos) because one of his candidates is a vet.
Vet Wife leads him to Gordon20024 (again, here on DKos) and somehow that leads to the NC Daily Kos folks showing up in Roanoke VA to hear Dr. Ferguson Reid Sr. speak. That leads to a regional meet-up in NC which attracts me (yeah, remember this story is about me) because I’ve got a bug up my butt about registering voters and I’ve heard they are doing a bang up job of it in NC, so off I go.
NC meets in Roanoke.
That leads to the 3 small ways I have made a difference. I’ve told Dr. Fergie Jr. that I’m not doing much and he says “Not much is a lot”. The first thing I did was start writing diaries about 90for90 and Dr. Reid Sr. I encouraged people to join as supporters of 90for90. Many did. I encouraged them to “like” the 90for90 Facebook page and they did, over a hundred of them. I asked people to support Gordon 20024’s diaries and they did and still do. Feel free to join in with a rec and a tip, he works really hard presenting a candidate every day.
I asked folks to support some of the candidates the DNC is not, the sacrificial lambs. Some of them are and you can too, I list them here with links, as well as other ways you can participate, ways you can make a difference. I even link to the candidates you can donate to or phone bank for. I want to make sure that every candidate in every race is supported.
A little bit of “in your face DNC”, I will admit.
The other thing I did was just bubble over with excitement about all the things I learned in NC. I spent a lot of time with the NC NAACP people and I asked a lot of questions and I took notes. I came home and acted out the whole experience for my friends, complete with various shouts and fancy footwork.
One of my friends, a 20 year veteran Black Hawk Pilot said I inspired him to move forward with an idea he has to get vets to register voters. He has an angle that is somewhat like “We risked our lives so you could vote now get up and vote!” I did that, I inspired him!
The 3rd thing I did was totally unintentional. I was just telling a friend about my trip, including all the various shouts and fancy footwork. Now, this friend of mine is totally apolitical, she once let her daughter vote for her, her daughter was maybe 6 and pushed all the buttons with R because her name is Rachel. Well, as soon as I’m done with my story, my friend volunteers to help me get Asians registered to vote. My apolitical friend! Who is Asian, fluent in Mandarin with a smattering of Korean and Vietnamese.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead"
And Daily Kos is not a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens. We are a LARGE group of thoughtful, committed citizens (well, and the occasional asshat). We are what Dr. Ferguson Reid Sr. calls a "Formidable Force". There is no doubt in my mind we can change the world. How are you going to make a difference?
committed citizen, asshat