This is the only personalized diary I would do. The short story is dKos got me to get my credit card out for the first time. It's also kind of a Goodbye diary which I understand is frowned upon so mock away but here goes ...
I remember netroots from the Howard Dean campaign in 2004. I have dim memories of Dave Winer / userland writing about using the net for contributions. I did political comedy on and off during the 80s. The last time I was politically very active I canvased for the Jerry Brown campaign in 1992 and did some shows for NY state races in the early 90s - all of which we lost. Carter / Reagan horrified me. I once voted for Jello Biafra (I'm kind of old)
Being a recovering news junkie I try to stay away from the net except during the national elections, kind of like following football (by which I mean soccer) only during the World Cup. A month or two ago I wandered / surfed over to Daily Kos (saw Kos on Charlie Rose a while back and was impressed) and I've been hooked ever since.
Cut to the chase - daily viewings of Kos got to me. I'm under employed with two babies and have been predicting the ... uh ... flaw in the Greenspan / Reagan / 'conservative' ideology (read: con game) for a couple of years. Hard times they is a comin I told the wife. Now I get to watch some poor military guy who voted Republican all his life, lost his son in Iraq in 2005, and now speaks very eloquently about sustainability and the tragedy of needless war (OK not needless if you're invested in Haliburton but ...). All of a sudden Reagan foot soldiers are starting to realize they have been useful idiots, whether it's the economy or, sadder still, losing a kid in George's war. So now they sound like Village Voice articles from 1982. Better late then never.
So this broke underemployed freelance guy cleared it with the wife and got out the credit card and went orange to blue for a bunch of local races and the top of the ticket. I know I should have been in earlier. Better late then never. Next week I'm gonna carve some time out and phone bank.
Anyhoo, I'm gonna cut myself off after the election and try and get back to work so I just wanted to say :
Great #$%@ing work Kos crew. Politically you've let me know my team comes to play now. From an inside baseball view: the site is well designed, the tech is great, the Flash state maps are fantastic, top shelf web stuff.
I know you're all aware that the right are watching (Kos's diary was on: Beware Huckabee. McCain 2000 / Huckabee was my nightmare. Huck's gonna run Christian populist and he's watched netroots and he'll raise tons of money)
Nothing's for certain until Nov 4 (at the earliest) but you guys are really onto something: win, lose, draw, the struggle continues. I won't be so late with the CC next time.