***Short Diary Alert***
As I attempt to concisely explain across the ridge, this is just one Kossack looking to stimulate a little discourse, and subsequently, and hopefully, get a better sense of this community's take on where we're at, by sharing thoughts, and perhaps fair criticisms, of where we're going... or more precisely in this case, where we may need to be careful of drifting...
For the most part, the last few months I've been taking a little time away from DKos to try to reset my perspective a bit.
I've never been a budding journalist. I'm a creative, interested, concerned citizen, with views that range from what would be called "extreme leftist" to downright conservative, depending on the topic... but the overall slant I'd be branded with in 2009 USA would easily be called radically librul.
I'm a relative late-comer to DKos. I saw DKos as "more open" to personal thoughts, creative rants, and discourse than some sites. I also recognized the potential flaws in such an approach, and took them, indeed welcomed them, with a grain of salt.
But then I saw some warning signs of more serious problems... namely some really selective authority being assumed, and allowed to be presumed, and a lot of other issues that would naturally follow suit. I've diaried on those concerns in the past, and will not rehash them here. Anyone looking for "examples" and references can easily check my diaries.
Instead, here I've got to address a more important, let's say over-arching thought on the status and future of DKos:
What would be the worst-case scenario for DKos? What threatens the ample voice-raising power that came together at DKos?
To me, it would be becoming the thing which it once most detested: That is, an entity too resistant to being questioned, even by a fellow "librul" - i.e. a place where "you're with us or against us" is often the ethos being excercised.
Yet, instead of continuing along that path, I thought I'd just stop for a second, and ask, as opposed to conjecturing any more. So, ok, I'm asking:
What do DKos readers and 'riters feel about the current status and future of DKos. And particularly, what worries you, or better put perhaps: What should DKos be mindful of as it goes forward, to retain its best attributes and in achieving the prime goal of "electing more and better Democrats"?
Obviously, this is not a scientific poll. Sort of a "taking the temperature" if you will. And the "fever" I'm hoping to get a read on would be one part "post-trauma" - that is, now, in the real afterglow of a major campaign victory, and one part "boy, we gotta a lot shit to deal with...".
And I feel it helpful and necessary to pose this inquiry to the collective mirror, in hopes of, if nothing else, helping me to get a better understanding of where some like-minded Americans are, and how they're feeling right now, in a time that to me, while certainly more optimistic, is likely even more "up in the air" than it was before the election... 'cause frankly, the wind in the sails is not all that strong, and the direction we're headed seems at best um, well let's say "vague". [Note: I say this while fully acknowledging two things: One, the determination and devoted efforts on the part of many to make real progress, giving heartfelt credit wherever and whenever it is due; but also Two, the persistent, and at times willful, desire to ignore real problems and dangers facing us, ranging from simple apathy to gleeful ridicule in the form of "chicken little" accusations in the direction of anyone raising objections or views counter to whatever the current administration does.]
So please take a moment for the poll, and add any other constructive comments you'd like.
Muchas Gracias, Grazie, Danke, etc etc etc