Long time reader, sometime poster and sparse diarist. Firstly, I will admit I am an outsider in the whole DKos community, and am really not privy to all the inner workings of the meta talk. This leaves me vulnerable, perhaps I am missing things involved in the current "crisis" (if you want to call it that). At the same time, perhaps this helps my perspective, I'm not in the pits as it were. To help illustrate my point, I am going to make a rough comparison between what I've seen at Daily Kos and the history of the United States in the 20th century.
I'll also warn you that this is a semi-rant, well it's an all out rant. I really don't know what kind of response this will draw, I guess the worst thing that could happen is being banned from the site.
Seminal moment, crisis situation.
United States: World War II/End of World War II
Daily Kos: 2000 election victory for Bush, consolidation of power by the Bush administration after Sept. 11th, Iraq war.
Both of these events created a flexible broad market that needed to be met. Almost all American people wanted suburbs and security, which was met by the U.S. markets, almost all liberals were disgusted by the Bush administrations , well pretty much everything, but specifically the war and election mongering.
Rapid Growth, pure and simple.
United States: 40's and 50's economic boom.
Dailykos: Before scoop, Gilliard, Billmon, Soto, etc, and of course Kos.
I was not here at the time, but those were the glory days weren't they? The sole focus on Daily Kos was on the war and Bush's election mongering, we were determined to see it's end. To create a network to win in politics to stop the war, to end Bush. Of course there were other markets that were unmet (see the next section). The sole focus in the United States was the American dream. A chicken in the pot of every American, how great. Of course there were other markets that were unmet (see the next section). In the face of a massive market crisis, there was this little nugget that was exploding with the promise of achieving it's one goal and achieving it well.
Achievement of the general, but hey what about...
United States: 60's civil rights, feminism, anti-war movement etc.
Daily Kos: Scoop, Bill in Portland, Jerome a Paris, Bonddad, DarkSyde, Pastor Dan, ct.
I can tell you right from the top, this is going to be the most controversial section. The American dream had been achieved for those that it was meant to be achieved for, a chicken in the pot, massive suburbanization, prosperity for all. The American economy was humming along. People were happy, but hey... Things were not all they were cracked up to be. Blacks, women, all sorts of groups that were being ignored by the majority were beginning to get their under-represented voices heard, and justifiably so. It may not have anything to do with the stereotypical American dream, the reason that America was established, but it was justifiable nonetheless. And American changed for the better because of it. Though we didn't see a change in congress till 2006, and Bush won reelection in 2004, the purpose/systems of Dailykos were established to eventually aid in the 2006 elections and the lame ducking of the president. Scoop was established for community sharing, Billmon's famous war post reframed the discussion of the war, DKos had become a major oppositional force to Bush's war and electioneering. But hey, the economy was sinking, the earth was warming, there was a health care crisis, economic inequality was reaching unheard of levels, rights were being violated. All these topics were eventually covered by dailykos, justifiably, and DailyKos was better for it. But just like the American Dream, these topics were not the reason DailyKos was created. (Flame war-START YOUR ENGINES). Let me reiterate, though that both America and Daily Kos were better for expanding their horizons. Matter of fact Daily Kos and America both grew more in this time period then it did in the previous time period. (Shout out to CT and the techies).
Everything is humming along, but there are no more causes...
United States: 70's, coasting, stagflation
Dailykos: Up until convention.
Actually there are causes, but people just generally want to relax and continue doing their own thing. Meta is relatively mild at this point, and is mainly focused on directing the causes that are important to the site. The (Iraq) war has not ended, but is becoming extremely unpopular, other markets within Kos are expanding or reaching their maximum capacity (all the offshoot blogs, other books are being worked on, a proliferation of diaries is occurring, networking of various skilled individuals, the convention is being set up). Despite all this, the original market has mostly been met, there are few new natural markets that are demanding attention. In the 70's the United States was coasting also. New causes were arising, but generally not getting as much coverage as those from the previous era. The (Vietnam) war was ending, many of the groups from the 1960's had not only gained a number of rights but were establishing their own networks (the roots of the rainbow coalition, etc.) Despite all this, there was missive stagflation because there were no more natural markets to expand into, demoralizing the general populace somewhat. At the end of this era there are two conventions that will change the course of America, the Las Vegas convention and the 1980 party conventions. In 1980's Reagan's speech with no substance, only hope, beat Ted Kennedy's speech about the importance of progress in America (even though it was Carter who was running). I consider Ted Kennedy's speech at the 1980 democratic convention the last great speech of the modern era, and perhaps one of the best speeches ever given. Despite this Regan won. Though I was not at the Las Vegas convention, I got the sense from CSPAN (and perhaps I am wrong because I wasn't there) that Regan won. That the importance of the people powered movement trumped what the people powered movement actually does.
The 1980's, the meta era.
United States: 1980's, Reaganomics, The City on a Hill
Dailykos: The meta era
To start out with I'm going to use some simple math on this one. If one were to look in diaries in say the 6 months after the Las Vegas convention , they would get the sense that the ever mentioned people powered movement was growing astronomically in both size and influence. Yet if one were to look at the raw numbers, they would see that visits to the site have essentially remained flat. Does this sound familiar? City on a hill, a new day in America, The great communicator. If anything the 1980's was the meta era in the United States history. Talk of growth, when the economy really remains flat. And this is the problem with Daily Kos, once all goals, all markets that fit within the flex system have been achieved the only growth market is Daily Kos itself, the Meta market. Meta and reaganomics rely upon growth that has already occurred for it to succeed. The bigger the entity (and believe me both Daily Kos and America are big), the more meta can feed off it's success. This is not to say that the meta era doesn't have its share of successes. In this time many systems that were set up in previous eras see their fruits come to fruition (scoop, global warming diaries, THE 2006 ELECTIONS, etc. etc. at Daily Kos, any number of programs set up in the progressive era in the United States). But meta eventually overshadows these achievements, at least within the system itself (i.e. it's not going to overshadow the totality of the 2006 elections). And as the Meta pie gets smaller and smaller, the fight for who gets credit gets nastier and nastier also. In the United States, this meant the rampit greed and cynicism of the late Reagan and Bush I eras. On Daily Kos this comes down to who really deserves credit for the success of this site and various accusations that come with the territory (blogging conspiracy, blog roles, banning, pie fights, outings do I really need to go on). Now some might say that the Meta on dailykos focus' on the future of the site, but look again at the diaries, they're not about the future of the site, they're about who controls the future of the site. Eventually the rancor gets so nasty that we lead into...
The post-modern progressive era.
United States: 1990's, The Third Way, Triangulation
Daily Kos: Lets all be civil and get those (republican) bastards era
Kid Oakland's last diary inspired this diary and is a classic example of this era, though his diary is only one of many personifying this era. I don't mean to call anyone out but it is what got me thinking about this analogy. Why? Because K/O sounds exactly like Bill Clinton (which I think is a pretty favorable comparison). OK, so the rancor over who controls the site becomes overwhelming. What do we do? Look to the past in order to see what worked for previous progressives and try to apply that to the ever cynical mud bath of the current meta-era. And it works, at least for awhile. It's the economy stupid, calls back to the economic growth of the 1950's just like it's the war stupid. calls back to the early days of dailykos. You see, when meta takes over a site, it destroys some of the systems that work. By getting back to the basics (that long list of what K/O thought everyone did well, which by the way, they do), one is reinstalling the defunct systems if you will. The problem with this is two fold. One, although meta has destroyed the system that worked, somewhat, it did not and can not destroy it completely because it (meta) relies upon the system in order to operate. Two, and more importantly, many of the functions that various components served are no longer needed. Not because they failed, but because they were so successful that they are not needed. I know that DailyKos is not the singular source of political influence in America, but look at the facts. Bush is a lame duck, the war is unpopular, the democrats are (swept) into power, global warming is getting major air play, etc. etc. By reinstalling software from the first three eras, we are installing software that is obsolete. Now, that is not to say that their aren't problems within each of these systems (there are, and to quote Trotsky, wink, wink, The war is never over), but if the issue is getting the issue heard, we have done that. In the United States, I will use Kos' own point on the DLC. The DLC (Clinton's organization), was awesome at maneuvering and solving problems that had come about because of the reaganomics era, but most of it's ideas were old hat and couldn't ultamietly handle the problems that had come about because of the meta era.
Collapse...
OK I'm getting really tired. So I'm going to start the current era and let you guys fill it in, in the comments, and then I'll come back and update latter. I start off with three (four) points...
United States: 2000's, Bush, Collapse
Daily Kos:
Collapse, Billmon's retirement, Kos is tired of posting, the rise of Daily Kos.
NOTE: And finally one point I'd like to make really fast. When I talk about problems like global warming, war, Bush etc. I'm not really so much talking about the issue as I am talking about how the issue can be addressed within daily kos. Oh and If I come across as a cynic pompous ass, I'm sorry.