My second article for PJ Media about my excellent adventure at YearlyKos is up. It’s about the eerie feeling of deja vu I’m getting walking around McCormick Place.
Anyone who lived through those times and experienced the feeling that ideology and politics had merged so that the ends and means were exactly the same would recognize what is happening at YearlyKos. Top to bottom, inside and out, this movement is nothing less than revolution. The ideas driving it are standard liberal fare; anti-war, health insurance, environmental protection, education, and jobs top the agenda. But the way the issues are being framed by participants in the dozens of panel discussions, workshops, and forums is where the action is. The nuts and bolts savvy of the political activists fuses with the wonks and wise men of the left’s intellectual brain-trust to turn out a brand new way to showcase these ideas to the public.
Some will see my analysis as perhaps reading too much into what is going on there; a bunch of lefties having a conversation with themselves that in the end, won’t amount to a hill of beans.
If you believe that, you ignore the underlying trends in polling and an evolving consensus among Democrats about how they will package their core issues in 2008.
As for those trends, I attended a fascinating panel discussion on the 2008 Election that featured a series of (to my eyes) shocking graphs. These graphs were not “snapshots” of public opinion but rather trends in opinion going back 2 years or more. They revealed in full color the uphill battle faced by the GOP in 2008. On every issue, every perception of the candidates, Democratic trend lines were going up while Republicans were static or trending down.
Trends are not easily reversed. And if what I believe about what is going on at YearlyKos is true, something earth shaking could very well occur on election day in 2008.
NOTE: In my article yesterday, I quoted Markos Zuniga as using the word “cleanse” to describe the plans of the netroots to remake the Democratic party. The phrase Zuniga actually used was “cleaning the Democratic Party out.”
I regret the inaccuracy of the quote and the fact that this mistake was compounded by the negative connotations of the word “cleanse” which escaped my notice in my haste to write the piece.
I apologzie for the error and any aspersions cast on Mr. Zuniga.
10:59 am
[...] This is the Rick Moran approach NOTE: In my article yesterday, I quoted Markos Zuniga as using the word “cleanse†to describe the plans of the netroots to remake the Democratic party. The phrase Zuniga actually used was “cleaning the Democratic Party out.†I regret the inaccuracy of the quote and the fact that this mistake was compounded by the negative connotations of the word “cleanse†which escaped my notice in my haste to write the piece. I apologzie for the error and any aspersions cast on Mr. Zuniga. [...]
10:48 am
“Cleanse” may not be the correct phrase, but based upon the loose bowels of the Senate and House Dems caving to “The Fear” of threats about their desire to protect the nation, it seems appropriate.
‘We are the middle’ has no meaning when you examine the chasm between the two sides. Just as shifting wealth is erasing the notion of a ‘middle class’, so too, the divisive exacerbations of polemics takes the equator
off the map of North/South, East/West will never meet.
6:11 pm
His surname is Moulitsas. Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. His father (Moulitsas) is Greek, mother (Zuniga) from South America. In latin fashion he lists both.
Thank you for your thoughtful remarks about YKos. I wish you would revisit your analysis about Sgt. Aguina’s mental well-being. Most of the comments made in that regard on DKos have been out of sincere concern. Many Kossacks have respectfully questioned the Sgt’s behavior and choices. Very few have called him a nutcase or anything like that.
5:29 pm
Though it wasn’t a remark made by Moulitsas, a few years ago David Sirota, during a proto-progressive/socialist gathering in Seattle, also described the progressive movement as wanting to “take over” the Democratic party. Despite trying deperately to find a link to the audio from the meeting, for my own blogging purposes, I can’t find it.
BTW, I appreciate your coverage of YK, and the BTR interview with Ed Morrissey of Captain’s Quarters, but in my opinion not enough attention has been paid to the Middle East Panel led by the discredited Mearsheimer.