The appearance of Bill Clinton at Netroots Nation raises very troubling issues for me. Specifically, it raises the question, are some progressives trading the long-held progressive action of speaking truth to power for access to power?
I was very pleased to see that at least one heroic Kosiac questioner absolutely spoke truth to power, by asking Clinton about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Kudos to that wonderful person.
I realize Clinton deserves much credit for helping bring home Laura Ling and Euna Lee. And I realize it would have been very hard for an up-and-coming organization like Netroots Nation to turn down a powerful potential ally like Bill Clinton.
But to me, the Clinton negatives far outweight these positives, and I wish he had not been invited to speak, for some very obvious reasons, a few of which I'll write about below the fold.
The most recent disqualifier from a progressive gathering was Clinton's absolutely despicable performance in playing the race card in all its ugly glory during the end of his wife's campaign. It was not hidden, it was right out in the open. Some things outweigh others, anti-racism tops political influence every time for me.
But the most obvious reason to exclude Clinton from NN09 is his standing as the originator of "the Third Way." It was Bill Clinton and the Clinton administration, with its guidance from Dick Morris, that is the reason we needed something like DailyKos in the first place. The wholesale abandonment of progressivism seen in acts like the Welfare Deform bill that Clinton proudly signed into law is what led to progressives feeling abandoned by the Democrats, and brought the country the presidency of George Bush (along with the hideous choice of Joe Lieberman as Gore's running mate).
So while I understand the reason Clinton got the speaking spot, it still makes me absolutely sick that even a progressive group like Netroots Nation would feel the access to power in the future was more important than all the times Bill Clinton stabbed us in the back in the past.
And I fervently hope that Netroots Nation is really represented in the Kosiac questioner who spoke truth to power with his question on Don't Ask, Don't Tell, more so than those who wanted access to power so bad they invited the anti-Kosiac original Blue Dog to speak. I know people like that are why I come here, for while I understand the need for access to power, I think what we really need is more people to speak truth to power.