DailyKos is a formidable force in progressive politics. But it could one day become an even larger force. We are at the heart, and probably are the largest part, of the outside-the-establishment net and grassroots of the Democratic Party. Stories that break on this website are so important that they often reach the mainstream media. If you talked to any reporter just 10 years ago and told him that a website would be a mainstay of Democratic grassroots, he or she would have a good laugh.
And yet this website has the potential to be a much more powerful and prominent tool. All we need is organization that will focus our internal debate and vigor on national issues and action. Since the election, dailyKos has not been broken, but we've had some problems. Before the election, the community stifled our misgivings about John Kerry and united behind him because he wasn't Bush. It was a beautiful thing is some ways, and not so much in others. But,
for the first time in modern history, it made us as Democrats unite in the manner Republicans do every election cycle.
However, the election is over, and it's a different story. Now, I'm not going to whine and talk to you about circular firing squads and bullshit like that. It accomplishes nothing (except for making more "circular firing squads" to argue the subject of circular firing squads). There is a reason behind why we form these arguments with each other, however, and we must address it. We are a body of informed, intelligent people. It's what makes us different from the GOP grassroots. Their electorate and grassroots are composed fundamentally of yes-men who tote the party line without putting any thought into it. They are true partisans. Our motto should be "When people think, Republicans lose". This is a large reason for the huge emphasis on standardized testing in No Child Left Behind; they are trying to form us into nonthinking automatons.
The main problem with dKos and the Democratic Party in general is that we are comprised of thinkers (ironic that this is a problem, isn't it?), and as thinkers, we sometimes lose track of our goals, and fail to push the party line. Our views are right, and we stick to our principles - and expect them to win us elections. The problem is that it doesn't work that way anymore; the public are sheep and the media are easily manipulatable lazy sensationalists. The world is different. As we divide, post-election, into our different groups: anti-Kerry, pro-Kerry; anti-Dean, pro-Dean; values believers, and values nonbelievers, our problem arises.
When you put a group of intelligent, informed people together, they are bound to discuss certain issues with which some disagree. Republicans win because they have ignorant groups (evangelicals, etc.) on their side. The people in these groups are essentially automatons; they're excellent at toting the party line and reciting talking points devised by those brighter than them, but they are not profound or deep thinkers. And because they are not thinkers, they conform to party standards because without truly putting thought into it, it makes sense. And so, there is little internal dissention within the GOP on the issues. There are, of course, notable exceptions, intellectual conservatives with which you can disagree with but still respect, people who are not Republicans above all, but conservatives above all. Notable in this group is Andrew Sullivan, who endorsed Kerry on the basis of traditional conservative ideology. Nevertheless, they are still but a small percentage of the Republican Party.
Of all the ignorant, party-line toting, non-thinking, extremist Republicans, the most prevalent and obvious is none other than George W. Bush. He is very good at doing what he's told and reciting Rove-supplied talking points, but his neoconservative overlords make the policy. George Bush is the cheery façade of the corrupt corporation; he is the smiley face of Wal-Mart; he is the mascot that projects a warm, likeable image in front of the brutal truth of the Orwellian policy put forth by his keepers. Many of us often wonder how half the American population can believe attacking Iraq was a good thing. A major explanation is that the people believe that Bush is an honest, likeable guy who would never do anything wrong or evil on purpose. "Mainstream" Americans refuse to believe that Bush has elaborate plans for Iraqi oil, or that he was behind election fraud, because the man they see every day is an idiot. The American people see that and can't believe that he could be behind a deliberate, elaborate plot. Putting Bush in office was a brilliant strategy, the perfect P.R. strategy. He is the ultimate Manchurian Candidate, perfected by 4 years of practice.
As Democrats in the 21st century, we hold the moral high ground. We hold the intellectual high ground. And, as much as the fundies like to like to say the opposite, we hold the religious high ground. Bush, the policy he represents, and the religious fundamentalists of the GOP represent Christianity in the same way Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda represent Islam. They simply don't.
We need to find a way to exercise our potential in a way that will nullify the GOP advantage in issue framing, and use our energies not for internal argument, but for devising strategies and acting on them to move this country forward. I've outlined my suggestions for accomplishing these goals as best we can below:
1. Regional Sub-pages:
Keep the main dKos page for national news and things of that nature, but have many sub-pages for each region. Each sub-page can represent a congressional district, a state region, or a state, whichever Kos decides would be adequate.
We could appoint a main blogger to each page, whoever seems to be the most articulate person with the freshest ideas. Or, the members of that region could vote, the more democratic way to do it. The main blogger could then choose another few main region page bloggers. There would be one of these pages for each of the states. The other region members could then act like a small version of the dKos main page community. They would post region-specific diaries and action bulletins. The region page would have recommended diaries and function in the same way the main dKos page does.
2. Action Bulletin Diary & Recommended Diary Sections:
Each region, as well as the main page, could have a separate section for "action bulletins". The regional bulletin diaries would outline the ways in which Kossites can work in ways beneficial to our cause - for example, hold signs for a local politician, boycott a local store owner, protest outside a local store owner, etc. The National Action Bulletin section would contain information about national action campaigns, for example, the Sinclair campaign.
These Action Bulletins would keep us active and involved as a community, and could exponentially increase our impact on politics.
3. "Frameshop" focus groups (kudos to Jeffrey Feldman for the frameshop idea):
There's no question that Republicans are better at framing the issues. This is the source of their success; this is why they are able to win with such an extremist agenda. We should form our own focus groups, formed by the blogger on the main or regional page, and with a category separate from other diaries. When a regional blogging chief finds a local issue that needs framing, he would create one of these diaries. Kossites would get together and give their input on an issue, and discuss how to frame it so it looks better in the eyes of the public. Either the chief blogger could do a poll after discussion is completed, or he could decide on the best of the proposals, which could then be formed into an Action Bulletin (calling the local media and using this term, protesting outside the local media so they'll use the term in their reporting, etc.
Now comes the obvious:
4. Regular Diaries
Change it so there's 10-15 recommended diaries, and the number of diaries/day is based on user status. Trusted users get two, regular users get one.
I'm not sure which of my ideas are feasible. But if we use these strategies, we can focus our energies on positive things, and getting things accomplished, rather than arguing (legitimately, but with little purpose) about whether Kerry is good, bad, tall, short, stupid, ugly, hot, or whatever. We are all intelligent, hard-working people working towards the same cause. So let's get this started, it's gonna be a long four years.