At the moment, the top recommended diary at Daily Kos is The Clinton Moment. It's an excellent diary that offers a nice, balanced picture of the California Democratic Convention that took place in San Jose this recent Sunday.
However, kid oakland's diary also offers a grave misrepresentation of what Daily Kos stands for, which we've seen repeated increasingly as the primary has gone on, and that's what I've chosen to write this inaugural diary about.
kid oakland kicks off the section with which I disagree by repeating a quote that he heard at the Convention while speaking with a Clinton worker, then offering his analysis of it:
"I'm on strike from that blog."
That surprised me. ... Blog battles rarely translate into real life animosity. Obama's line about "Friends before and friends afterwards" is true.
That's what struck me with that comment. I think we've all got to take a step back and think about that for a second. This was a woman who was cordial and welcoming and yet she felt estranged from DailyKos. The strike shut down the conversation.
That needs to change. Now.
I'll tell you why I totally disagree after the jump.
What kid oakland--and a lot of other people, including the "striker"--don't seem to understand is something that can't be stated enough:
Daily Kos is not a Democratic blog.
It is instead a progressive Democratic blog. It's about changing the party from within, about throwing out the old and welcoming in the new, about crashing the gates, as it were.
It is not all inclusive, it should not be all inclusive, and I hope it never will be all inclusive.
Those are hard words to say in a party that's all about bringing people together, about making sure everyone has a say. But they're the unvarnished and blunt truth as well.
If we put on a false face for that striker--pretending that we were happy with the same old politics, with NAFTA and Don't Ask Don't Tell, with the PATRIOT Act and the other laws which are the products of weak-willed centrist Democratic candidates--then we'd simply be offering her a misrepresentation of the site.
Maybe we already have, and that's why these "strikers" appear to feel betrayed. Or maybe it's just a natural result of the site's success, and the desire for Democrats of all sorts to make their own use of it.
The fact is, however, that Daily Kos isn't just any Democratic site. It's for progressives, and though most of us would stand behind Hilary if we had to in November, until that day comes we'll be campaigning for the candidates that actually represent this site's ideals.
If more conservative supporters of more centrist candidates don't like that, then this site isn't for them. No problem.
The Democratic Party is the Big Tent, not Daily Kos. Here we get to work for what we think the Democratic Party should mean.
Edit: Perhaps it might be more accurate to say that Daily Kos is a progressive site primarily and a Democratic site generally. However, I think the main point remains.