To some, the schism between DailyKos and MyDD is simply a reflection of the broader Civil War between Democrats as a whole across the country. But lately, since the much publisized "strike" of DailyKos, MyDD has, in my view, been consciously diminishing in credibility as a Progressive media outlet.
After deleting a diary that pointed out errors in one of his posts, Jerome's latest "new thing" is a belief that it's "too easy" to setup an account on MyDD to express views, hinting that banning is coming to a blogosphere near you. His right, no doubt. But then again, MyDD is supposed to be about "Democracy." I mean, he does put it in his title, so you can't blame people for wondering why the contradiction. In particular, his post doesn't seem to be any more balanced than his website - he's clearly venting at Obama supporters still left at MyDD, which means he's deliberately pushing MyDD into the Clinton camp. The cynical part of me believes this is conscious attempt by MyDD to capture disaffected Hillary supporters from the rest of the blogosphere which is almost entirely pro-Obama - in other words, try to coalesce a small group of people into one large outlet. A smart strategy, perhaps.
But I think the more realistic answer is that Jerome vocally put himself in a losing camp with a candidate that doesn't really uphold Progressive values and he's struggling to regain credibility after a long list of poor predictions and analysis. But it goes deeper than that. Hillary Clinton is undermining a core objective of the netroots which is to "grow the brand" of Progressives. Jerome's always known this, and he's always understood that "There's not much appetite for anyone that's had a career in DC among the netroots." Thus, Jerome must now fight to reconcile his views with his objectives. Jerome's future is now, in part, tied to Clinton's and this race. He's pushing a position which has gone from typical primary-season "friendly disagreements" to a real case of friendly fire and in some cases, making posts that, written by any other blogger, would rightfully be called "concern trolling."
Jerome and his fellow bloggers on MyDD consistantly push the "party line" of Hillary Clinton. While Jerome claims (arrogantly and with a clear swipe at DailKos), "this is not a cheerleading blog for either of the candidates," it clearly has become both a depository for anti-Obama stories and a place to push an irrationally and self-destructive pro-Hillary position. It's not anyone's fault that the reality-based community can do basic math and understands that Obama is the logical nominee, and so it's, ahem, a bad idea to say the country is better off with McCain on foreign policy.
I often see MyDD echoing the Clinton camps attempts view to bring Obama "back to reality," by yawning at his impressive speeches, and ignoring his 30,000 strong crowds as irrelevant to the larger cause they claim to promote. They write as if to say "the Kool Aid doesn't work on me." Yes, Jerome et al, you are truly smarter than the rest of us, betting against a candidate that is the clear favorite of the community you represent and claim to speak to. And yes, along with FOX News, it appears that you want to talk about Rev. Wright all day, every day. A brilliant strategy, questioning the patriotism of a Democrat by suggesting its only out of concern for those Republicans who would dare do such a thing.
MyDD now parrots nearly everything that the Clinton camp proposes, including the nonsensical position that superdelegates overturning the pledged delegate leader is clearly "within the rules" - even though that's hardly the point. It was "within the rules" for Bush to fire the US Attorneys, he had a right to do that. But it was the WRONG THING TO DO, and bad public policy. Similarly, here, it's going to destroy the party and guarantee the Republicans at least one, maybe two, more Supreme Court positions under a McCain Presidency. I digress, because it's a waste of time to debate the merits of many of the points expressed on MyDD.
But simply put, the quality there has devolved to simple self-righteousness. It's a textbook example of bruised ego's writing before careful planning. Rather than being capable of advocating his views and letting them stand on their own merit, Jerome writes that his view is reality and "If you want to ignore it, go someplace else."
Really? Doesn't that sound like another certain political parties approach to politics? And does that really sound like a Progressive who wants to "grow the brand?" Rather, much like his candidate, it appears that Jerome has burrowed himself in, and will be unwilling or unable to reconcile himself to any facts that don't conform to his worldview. In essence, he's become everything he's ever critisized about Republicans.
Jerome once wrote about the importance of dialogue between progressives: "The dynamic feedback is loop one of the great things about the open blogosphere that makes the community authentic." Somehow, Jerome went from the importance of feedback to "go someplace else" if you disagree with him, deleting diaries that critisize him, and it now appears banning people that don't agree with him.
In short, it is my belief that both Hillary Clinton, and MyDD, are endangering the Progressive cause by damaging the Democratic nominee going into November. And this puts at risk our soldiers, Katrina refugees, women's rights, gay rights, and a long laundry list of Progressive objectives that go far beyond this petty netroot squabble.
In short, you can't strike when you're no longer working for the netroots.