We're almost there. All we need now is a few more rides in the limo, a weekend at the Grove, and an opportunity to completely fuck a few of our fellow "progressives" - for the greater good of course - and we'll have fully assimilated into the Beltway culture.
Call this an epitaph for the People Powered movement.
Last year my little group of music industry professionals turned politicos met with Howard Dean to see how we could help to defeat the Republicans in the upcoming midterms. After the largely meaningless meeting concluded, I was talking to Dean about how we were going to rid ourselves of the corporate, Republican-lite, DLC wing of the party, and finally start representing the interests of ordinary Americans again. You know, the Democratic wing of the Democratic party.
He gave me this look that said, 'someone's ass is gonna get whooped', pointed his finger at my chest, and said, "After the election, we're going to have a war for the soul of the Democratic party."
"Hmmm", I nodded. Of course I knew he was full of shit. You don't have wars after elections. The election is the war. And you, me, and Howard Dean had already lost it to Wall Street, Rahm Emanuel, and Steny Hoyer.
Coincidentally, Kos was in town promoting his book that same day. And he also met with our little group. I listened attentively as he laid out the new strategy called 'Crashing the Gates.' This was where all us bloggers and grassroots, netroots types would slowly but surely take over the Democratic party by simply infiltrating it. We would run for precinct captains and maybe even state or federal positions and before long, the party would look like us because it would be us.
This, of course, was also full of shit. It presupposes that we, whoever we are, are somehow better people than the current precinct captains and Democratic officeholders. That us netroots people are somehow immune to the influence of money and power that has so corrupted the current power class.
To illustrate the farcity of this notion, Mother Jones has a little expose' on all the top "progressive" bloggers. It appears that as soon as they got a taste of power, the first thing they did was form a secret society sort of email list where they could plan and strategize behind closed doors so to speak. You know, just like Cheney's energy task force.
So much for Open Source Democracy.
As an amusing aside, shortly after Kos came to town, I saw the funny little ad for Crashing the Gate. This showed a bunch of netizens desperately tugging at a donkey trying to pull it their way. But the donkey wouldn't budge. And then Kos came up from behind and gave it a good kick in the ass and saved the day.
You don't have to be an advertising major to get the symbology of that scene. People Power was faltering at the rope. But the lone blog leader came in and saved the day.
The only thing that made the metaphor more perfect was the revelation that no donkeys were harmed during the making of the ad. Indeed.
There is a war going on, but Howard Dean ain't a part of it. It is a war on you. You see, there's a lot of incredibly powerful people and they are afraid of you. And they're especially afraid of the rise of economic populism that is flourishing on the lefty blogs.
This little crowd had the idea that if the Republicans carried eight more years in power, there could possibly be a revolt from the Democratic party, and a third party would rise up - a party they did not control (You don't really think the Democratic party is in control, do you?).
And so a miracle occurred. Wall Street started giving its money to Democrats. They knew there would be those annoying little token gestures Democrats have to make to their base. Minimum wage, a union bill or two, etc. But the base was getting out of control. The Dean campaign demonstrated that clearly.
The last thing they can let happen is for someone to seriously challenge the status quo. So the game is, appease the base, without actually doing anything. That's exactly what the Senate Slumber Party was the other night. Did you fall for it? Or the Clinton campaign's sudden defence of YearlyKos against the evil Bill O'Reiley. Did you fall for that? And now the big blogger fundraising drive.
I was a Democrat when Hillary was still a Republican. And I'm as politically pure as Huey Long. But you people need to figure out who the real enemies are.
JetBlue? You mean this JetBlue?
In September of 2002 JetBlue turned over the personal and travel records of five million of its passengers to the Defense Department. In an attempt to learn how to identify terrorists, the defense contractor Torch Concepts combined that data with detailed personal files purchased from a company called Acxiom, a "data aggregator" in the business of compiling personal information on Americans.
Yes, I love JetBlue. Their colors are so Democratic.
How far we've come. From taking our country back to becoming a cash machine for entrenched power. I honestly thought it would take a bit more than this. You should have at least held out for the Grove. The food is to die for.
Remember when Howard Dean said, "I'm from the Democratic wing of the Democratic party?" What did you think he was saying there? He was saying that his party, your party, has been compromised.
What Dean knows, even if he didn't get his war, is that it's not the people who need to change. It's the system itself. I guarantee, the vast majority of Democrats occupying the halls of power in Washington started out just like you and me. They got into politic to do good.
But the machine beats them down. Raising money, trading votes, and eventually, they become the system. They learn to play the game, and the game wins. Now, they serve no function but to maintain the status quo.
And now we get to watch a little scaled down, mini version of these events play out right here. Some of the "leaders" of the blogworld are seriously vaccuous opportunists. They see this as a path to a fat gig.
Others are just naive. Wet behind the ears, they have no fucking idea that politics is about nothing but money to most of the players. Trillions of dollars. They fail to recognize that people will kill other people for $20,000. What will they do for $20 billion?
There is no way to kick the donkey without causing it pain. Political change is nothing but conflict. Friction. And pain. You are a Democrat. Chances are, you believe in policies, like single payer health care, that would result in certain parties losing billions of dollars. Billions.
What do you think they would do to keep that money? That's right. They would kill you. Just like the energy companies and United Fruit (Chiguita) have been killing entire countries for decades.
The other corporate donor to YearlyKos, Issue Dynamics, is worse than JetBlue. They are a PR firm. What does that mean? It means they take corporate criminals, liars, theives and scumbags, and make them look good by utilizing powerful connections in the mass media market to implement brilliant campaigns of deception.
Can you say astroturf? Well, this is precisely what JetBlue and Issue Dynamics presence at YearlyKos will be. Thing is, whatever rationalization you can think of, accepting money from these people is a tacit endorsement of their companies.
The CEO of JetBlue, David Neeleman, just gave $6,300 to Mitt Romney. He gave $5,000 to the NRCC. I can't wait to hear the hypocrisy of those who chafe Ralph Nader for accepting money from Republicans.
While this little rant has been written in the 1st person, it certainly doesn't apply to everyone. Or even a majority. You know who you are.
You are the ones who are hurting the Democratic party. You apologists who only stand for a letter before a name. Weak opportunists who would sell out your grandmother for a ride to the top. You who can't tell the difference between you enemies and your allies because you lack the moral judgement to know the difference.
You are the first to cry troll at some poor, beleaguered schmuck who has begun to lose the faith, and so comes here to register their dismay with impotent, withering leadership . You bully and lash out at those who don't tow the party line. And you cry "This is a Democratic site dedicated to electing Democrats."
But you're not electing Democrats. You're alienating them. You drive away votes with your mindless name calling. You cut a wedge between good progressives and loyal Democrats. You lose my party votes.
And now you want to destroy Daily Kos by turning it into the very thing the People Powered movement is supposed to be fighting.
Welcome to your irrelevance.
Oh yeah, here's the photo. Thanks for reading.