Today, I am pleased to announce, that after eight years in pre-production, a $250,000,000 budget that included the construction of a full-size replica of the Titanic, dozens of script re-writes from modern super-writer Stephen Bosco, a long-awaited soundtrack by Toto that precisely captures the mood of the galaxy eight thousand years in the future, a thirteen episode reality television show hosted by Tim Gunn to find our graphic designer, twelve simulations monitored by Gary Kaspaov and Deep Blue to work out the strategic kinks, an accelerated citizenship process for our ringer, Freddy Adu, and a worldwide race to find the Ark of the Covenant before Belloch and the Nazis, the new website from executive producers Chris Bowers, Matt Stoller and Mike Lux, the Open Left, is making its public launch today!
More shameless promotion of Open Left, the most awesomest website of all-time, can be found in the extended entry.
Now, apart from rendering the Democratic party unelectable through our unwavering adherence to far-left ideology, what can you expect on Open Left? Well, overall, we are dedicated to building a sustainable, progressive governing majority, not just a Democratic one. In some ways we are quite familiar, in that you know our names and in that we run on Soapblox. In other ways, we are an experiment, trying to bring progressive activists and professionals from "inside" and "outside" the political establishment into regular, thoughtful, and active connection with one another. There will be a wide variety of progressive people and organizations posting content, some of whom will introduce themselves as we roll out many of our soon-to-be regular features this week. We have innovative new posting protocol, epitomized by the "Right To Respond", where, in the interests of openness and a desire to foster more conversation among progressives, any progressive individual or organization we blog about in a front-page post will have the opportunity to respond with a front page post of their own. With both Matt Stoller and myself, you can expect much of what we provided at MyDD, only expanded into other areas. Mike Lux will be able to provide a wealth of professional political experience and an inside viewpoint rarely seen in our previous work. Also, there will be more topics we write about both for an extended period of time and in great detail, rather than relying on singular posts and off-the-cuff analysis. We will write more about legislative policy, as well as strategy on how to pass progressive policy. Further, there will also a lot of talk about progressive culture and lifestyle, since there will never be a sustainable progressive governing majority in America unless that governing majority is accurately representing a more progressive America.
Anyway, enough talk about what we are going to do, since it is by our fruits that ye shall know us. Rather than gradually rolling out our first few articles this morning, we have instead loaded up the site of with lots of new content so you have plenty to dig through right away. Already, with much more on the way for this afternoon, you can check out the following articles and permanent pages:
--The Birth of a Movement, where Mike Lux gives an inside view of what it was like to be part of the Clinton impeachment fight. Spoiler alert: the Democratic and progressive advocacy group establishment was not very helpful.
--What Is OpenLeft.com?, where Matt Stoller offers some perspective on why we chose the name Open Left for our new website, and on where our contemporary movement of left-wing activism fits into a broader historical picture of American politics. This article will be permanently linked in our About section.
--New Establishment Rising? The End of the Flat Blogosphere, is my opening, lengthy theoretical piece for Open Left. If I may be so bold to say so, it is one of the best, if not the very best, piece I have ever written on the progressive, political blogosphere. It is also the first step in a collaborative project with JONI: Journal of Netroots ideas, which will take place over the next weeks and months on Open Left.
--Towards A Universal Neutral Internet, where Matt Stoller offers a broad perspective on the progress of the fight for Net Neutrality. It ties directly into, among other things, the primary challenge Donna Edwards is running against Al Wynn in MD-04, and to the political interplay between labor unions and the Democratic Congress.
--The Self-Identified Progressive Candidate, where I look at how often each of the eight Democratic campaigns for President use the ideological term "progressive." Content warning: this post might cause you to conjure up images of me dancing at home in my underwear.
--In the Nomination at a glance page, you can find the latest national and early state polling averages, along with fundraising numbers, primary calendar info, and general analysis, for both the Democratic and Republican nominations.
And that is just for starters—if you sign up now, you can still secure a low user ID! Not a day goes by when I don’t derive a smug sense of satisfied, superiority from having user ID 123 on Dailykos. Now, you too can be one of the user ID elite!
So, please visit Open Left. Bookmark Open Left. Tell your friends, family and co-workers about Open Left. Purchase billboard space on behalf of Open Left. Whatever you do, come to this website today, tomorrow, and every day after that. My future, your future, and indeed the future of the planet, depends upon it.