Daily Kos is ruining my life. Since I discovered Kos, I have become an increasingly agitated, angry man. I am constantly distracted so it is difficult to make money to live. I write for my living, but lately I have little time for it. When I do write it is posted on the web for the world to read so I make nothing from it. Even as my income diminishes, I am seized by a chronic desire to send money I don't have to support causes that I didn't even know existed a few short months ago. It wasn't always like this...
I drifted through the Clinton Administration with little attention to politics. Things in the nation just seemed to be going so well, so easy, that it didn't require my attention. The impeachment charade was a nasty, noisy circus, but really meant little.
Then came Bush. Though I voted for Gore, Bush didn't bother me at first. After 9/11, the incursion into Afghanistan bothered me a little. A little noise in the back of my head kept telling me that we were falling into a trap of Osama's making. But I couldn't think what else to do.
But Iraq, now that was a different story. This was a trap of Bush's making. Osama couldn't do anything but stand back and cheer at our unbelievable stupidity. The war was illegal and immoral. But even more than that, it was an incredibly dumb thing to do. As Napoleon might have said, worse than a crime, a mistake. After the Iraq invasion, I was Bush's enemy.
I told myself that I wouldn't vote for anybody who had voted for the war, but in the end, I voted for Kerry anyway. The prospect of Bush for four more years was just too awful to contemplate. The fact that he won (well, sort of) was just unbelievable to me. My country was headed down the tubes. I had to do something.
One thing that I did do was to get on a wingnut mailing list sponsored by my uncle and including many of my very Republican relatives. I sent back all the misinformation, trash and bigotry from my uncle with corrections to the twenty or so wingnuts on the list. I found leftish versions of the truth on the web and sent it unvarnished to the computer screens of folks who otherwise never ventured far from the F-word network for their news. My mother requested that I stop. My stepbrother started blocking my e-mails. Finally, my uncle stopped sending me stuff. So it hasn't done much for family relations.
In my search for the truth, though, I had found Kos. Now I am hooked. I don't know what to. I can't begin my day without the latest from Georgia, SusanG, Dark Syde, bonddad, Melvin or Armando. I read every post from Jerome a Paris, even when I don't agree. When in the horrible grip of my addiction, I'll even scan the new diaries past the point where they scroll off the page. That list never ends, did you know that? I'll even read the comments on the Open Threads, which are just random. It's time for a 12 step program, I know, but I can't help myself. I haven't reached bottom yet.
I used to be a silent lurker, but lately I've felt the need to express myself, putting out diaries, adding comments, and getting into useless arguments with wingnuts posing as Kossacks. I have another blog elsewhere on the web that is vaguely related to what I do for a living, but it goes begging for posts, because I am stuck here on Kos.
Tonight I will travel to Nashville to meet the man who has caused me so much trouble and aggravation. And you know what I will tell him?
Thanks.
And then I will buy his book.
Because of him, and the all you Kossacks out there, I have a little bit of hope. The people can win. Smart, passionate people are a powerful force for change when they are empowered. The Daily Kos has done that.
I feel better now. I thank you all.
