The only prescription?
Kossack dansac helped me realize something in a comment he made in a JeffLieber diary. Don't let anyone tell you that it's all dick-and-fart jokes in a Lieber diary because that just ain't the case.
We're getting ready to come out of our political exile. Have you listened to Sean Hannity's show lately? He's already calling himself "conservatism in exile." They are entering the wilderness we've been wandering through, and we're moving out.
Daily Kos was born out of exile. It's all we've ever known. Many of us became users here because we were looking for a place that made the world seem sane again. And now here we are. Things are changing, and things still seem insane!
"The more things change," right?
I haven't been here since the beginning, but that's the Kossack Oral History that has been passed down to me around many a campfire. I'm probably not the best person to write this, but I think it's important for us to realize that the site is having a bit of an identity crisis at the moment.
As dansac puts it:
But the site has fundamentally changed. There's major identity crisis. People don't know what it means to blog AND have a Democratic administration, it's simply a new thing for them.
While we had Bush to kick around, we knew who to rage against. Now, I believe most people who were around for the election have taken a break, but a core audience remains behind and knows nothing but raging against the machine.
But you know something? There's nothing to be afraid of. I have an idea.
What do we need right now? We need to strut.
Here's what I mean.
Rush and Hannity and Billo and all the others have had some of their best years over the past 8 years, even as the GOP has been running (and ruining) everything. Did the success of their party hold them back?
Well, I say we take a page from their book. We need to get triumphal on their asses. We need to sing our songs and wave our banners. We need to be tearing down Main Street piloting a monkey-navigated drag racer naked while singing "We Are the Champions."
And so on.
I mean hell, we won, right? Where's the streamers and confetti and the farting on the heads of our opponents?It's like we're ashamed to gloat or something.
What's holding us back? Well, there's the Democrats, of course. But we'll get to them in time. We have to focus on our own house before cleaning up our neighbor's place.
How did the conservatives get the Republicans to give them everything they ever wanted? I don't know the answer to that, but we need to know.
Anyway, I'm rambling now. I've written myself into a corner. I want you to continue this line of thought in the comments because I think maybe you can see where I'm headed with this. I think it's an important discussion to have.