Daily Kos is getting harder to read.
It used to be that the Hidden Comments were an amusing diversion from the real business of this site.
Lately that particular list speaks only to the worst excesses, the real harm is being done on the Diary list and in comments attached to regular Diaries that really, not so long ago would have attracted donuts, and now are the common currency.
Tell me I'm wrong. Please tell me I'm wrong because I don't just want to be wrong, I need to be wrong.
The Mission Statement, the raison d'etre of this site is very clear, and very simple:
Electing more, and better, Democrats
In 2008 we did just that. We elected more Democrats, and we elected a President we could believe in, and we got control over both Houses of Congress, and the White House. It was, in the words of the previous Vice President, a Slam Dunk.
Let us not forget the scenes in that park in Chicago. Remember the sheer awesomness, for want of a better word, of the events of Election night. We won, dammit, and we are still in control.
But what did we win?
Control of Congress ... check
The White House ... check
The Supreme Court ... er, No
The lobbiests ... No
The system of government ... No
We did not, in one election, change anything about Washington DC that could allow the kind of Change We Want. Why would anyone think that broadly the same personalities that have occupied DC for a generation, would effect the kind of real change that is needed. Not change to the policies, or laws of this land, however much that change is needed; but change to the political system that makes those laws and policies.
Why do people think that changing the faces is the Change We Need? It might be a good start, and at least in one sense the 2008 election changed one thing .... It changed the outlook of 40 million Black Americans who went to bed that night able to believe, for the first time EVER, that they really could become anything they wanted to. That was transformative in it's own right. That can never be rolled back!
President Obama may, or may not prove to be the Leader we hoped he would be. He certainly can not be the Leader some of us want, and he has already achieved more than many of us dared to believe possible. But this is not a Diary lauding the greatness of the incumbent. The subject is too important for that.
Barack Obama is a man like any other, cut him, and he bleeds. His poop smells just as bad as mine, or yours, or his, or the guys on the other side of the aisle. And because he is fallible, he makes mistakes, very big, public mistakes, it goes with the Office. We need to get used to that.
On January 20th 2009 this country changed, it changed permanently, and it changed for the better. That much is clear, and we did it. We caused that change. You, me, Markos, Olbermann and Maddow. We did it and we should be proud.
That victory was the start, not the objective. It was a battle won in a war against a venal and smart opponent. They didn't stop fighting when they lost a skirmish, any more than the British quit when they evacuated 300 000 servicemen from the beaches of Dunkirk, under continuous and heavy fire, during six days of courage beyond measure in 1940.
No, they went home, rested up a bit, cleaned their weapons, kissed their wives goodbye, whistled for some help from across the pond, and went back into the fight. They knew, and we must learn, that it ain't over until the enemy of the people, of freedom, is but a distant memory reduced to cartoons of silly moustaches and internet jibes.
So we won a battle. We elected an honest, if imperfect guy who has achieved a lot but has a fatal flaw .... He wants everyone to play nicely. They won't. We know that and so do they. I guess the President knows it too, but he is who he is, don't expect him to change fundamentally, few people have the greatness required to do that.
So what's next?
Well the fight goes on. It started on January 21st 2009 but some don't seem to have taken that on board. We still need to elect more Democrats, and we still need Better Democrats. Actually, we just need Democrats. My Dad always used to tell me that you can't win by trying to be a better Conservative than the Conservatives, it doesn't work because Toryism isn't what they do, it's what they are.
I read the disappointment writ large on the Diary List, and in the comments. The in-fighting might make you feel better, but what it really does is make the Opposition stronger, that's all. When we fight amongst ourselves we hand our own asses to the Republicans. So quit.
Debate is needed, now more than every. Debate relies on listening, as well as posting. Reading as well as typing. Proposing solutions rather than bitching about setbacks. In short, playing smart!
We won in November 2008. We won massively and the vitriol coming from the other side, the sheer foaming at the mouth by Glenn Beck tells us we won. We will keep on winning, because we are right and they are wrong.
We will win faster, and help more Americans if we march together.
So let's try, if we can to come to this place not with problems, but with solutions.