Well, I thoroughly enjoyed YearlyKos and many of the panels were outstanding. But I did leave a bit dispirited that, not exactly to my surprise, there was minimal attendance at any of the four different sessions discussing issues of working families and the labor movement. None of those four sessions had more than forty people in attendance.
Of course, there were lots of interesting panels competing for the attention of YearlyKos attendees, but it's a bit symbolic of why progressives are still in the political minority that, with four sessions available, the overwhelming number of folks didn't think it was worth spending even one session hearing about these labor concerns or talking with the attending labor leaders, a key progressive ally for social change.
The labor movement actually took YearlyKos very seriously, contributing money to help subsidize costs and sending top leaders to attend the sessions, including top AFL-CIO folks, UNITE-HERE leaders and the new executive director of the Change to Win federation. The YearlyKos volunteers were wonderful in making space available at the convention for those sessions on labor issues, so it's too bad so few folks took advantage of it. I know that the labor leaders were a bit frustrated that their interest in the blogosphere was not reciprocated.
A lot of Kossacks worry that progressives are losing voters over cultural issues, but really, they are losing them because those working families aren't hearing from many progressives about the economic concerns they also care about. Here's the sobering statistic: in 2004, John Kerry lost white working class voters (defined as those without a college education) by 23 points, a swing of 6 points against the Democrats compared to 2000, essentially almost all of George W. Bush's increased margin of victory in the election.
So it was a great convention in many ways, but it also reflected a political skew in the movement that ultimately needs to be corrected if the blogosphere is going to have the impact it could have in reviving a progressive message among many working families who are alienated it.