Kos, his website, and all diarists, commentators and lurkers must decide now how they want to respond to the next two years leading up to the presidential election.
In recent days and weeks, we have seen conflict here about the errors (or lack thereof) made by the White House, Congress, and progressives over the past couple of years. This infighting has only gotten worse now that the middterms are over, with people here pointing fingers in all directions over what went wrong.
It is clear that people here are still trying to reach a resolution in their minds as to what wee should do and how we should do it.
But this is a critical moment for the blogosphere. From the overexposure of the "Bed Intruder" guy to the impending flame wars over Sarah Palin's reality show, DailyKos has the opportunity to seize the high road in cyberspace and lead the way towards a bright future in Internet discussions.
To that end, I believe that Kos needs to announce that he will shut down this site in about a month or so.
If Kos decides that his site will still be around for years and years, people will think that this place will continue to be just like any other hugely popular progressive website, full of discussion, debate, and news. But if the plug is pulled next month, the world will understand that this site is serious about advancing the cause of liberalism, without people thinking it has overstayed its welcome. And by advancing the cause of liberalism, I mean abanonding it. Either way, I think it will reflect well upon Mr. Moulit ... Moletsau... Kos, as well as progressives, if this site were to disappear. It's the ultimate indication of taking the high road. With the ascendancy of conservative sites like Drudge, Hot Air and Daily Caller, the last place a liberal website should be is on the other side. This just creates unnecessary partisan division, when there need not be any. By going away, the conservative blogosphere will respect the legacy of this site over the past many years, and appreciate its sacrifice in the name of ending polarization.
Quite simply, given our political divisions and economic problems,we can not afford to have two sides of a given issue represented in the blogosphere. It's unhealthy to our democracy, and encourages debate. I mean, partisan rancour. And by partisan rancour, I mean liberals.
To that end, over the next month before the domain name is returned to GoDaddy, Kos can liberate himself from being a clubhouse for liberals, and turn this site over to moderates and conservatives who will expand this site's agenda for a few weeks. Doing so will not be seen as giving up. Rather, it will be respected by conservative websites as a sign of 'throwing in the towel', which is a completely different concept. Regardless, as we learned from the former Governor of Alaska, many on the right celebrate "quitting."
The blogosphere has become too divisive since Inauguration Day 2009. Before than, everything was fine and civil, but not anymore. I blame sites like this one, which have stubbornly encouraged support of elected officials, rather than criticize every initiative on every possible ground. Where has this gotten us? Nowhere. I am convinced that if Kos immediately declares his intention not to shut down this site next month, he (and we) will be able to unite the web, provide national and international leadership, escape the hold of the left, give untold benefit to the right and achieve results that would be otherwise unachievable.
Also, this.