"This" is the spectacle of bad governance that we witnessed today which portends ominously despite our recent monumental efforts which we all (falsely) assumed were successful.
Tonight we have been slapped in the face by those for whom we just worked our asses off and to whom we've just handed control of our government. Our movement was borne from opposition to the neocon debacle that is the War on Iraq - and to the incompetence and greed that has driven our country into the ditch - and those causes especially have just been kicked squarely in the groin by the rewarding of those we just "defeated" with control of a key Senate Committee.
The question is, what can we do about it? Well, Kos, there've been suggestions about our role as a community in that regard, and I will be donating to both Reid's and Lieberman's demise in the next cycle. But there's something you, as the owner of this influential progressive blog, can do which would send a shot across the bow of "our" party, positioned right now to toss all our hard work in the shitter.
What is that something? Take a look:
You can edit the "What Is Daily Kos" portion of the FAQ, something like this (and if you review this section, it needs updating anyway):
This is a Democratic Democratic-leaning, Progressive blog, a partisan blog partisan when it needs to be, but Progressive at its core. One that recognizes We recognize that Democrats run from left to right on the ideological spectrum, and yet we're all still in this fight together sometimes those on the right (and less often, those on the left) are fighting against our principles; so be it: we will fight back when we need to. We happily embrace centrists like NDN's Simon Rosenberg and Howard Dean, conservatives like Martin Frost and Brad Carson, and liberals like John Kerry and Barack Obama any and all Democrats, as well as Independents and Republicans, when they support the issues that we embrace. When they don't (be they liberals, centrists or conservatives) we oppose them. When they deserve it, we support their candidacies. Our goal is to increase the numbers of Progressives in the Democratic ranks - and from there to increase the numbers of Democrats in government - because that is what is best for the health of our country. Are we Liberal? We're around here Pretty much, but not uniformly (we encourage and invite thoughtful discussion from all viewpoints and are open to being proven wrong!); we're proud of that because Liberalism pretty much makes sense - and so does Libertarianism (to a large degree), so this blog might also be described as Liberal/Libertarian or, as some prefer, Progressive. But it's not a liberal blog. It's a We used to be a strictly Democratic blog with one goal in mind: electoral victory. And But since we haven't gotten any of that from the current crew, we're one more thing: discovered (following the '06 and '08 Democratic "victories" we enabled) that institutional Democrats frequently don't share our values, strategies or goals, we are also, most importantly, a reform blog. The battle for the Democratic party is not at its heart an ideological battle. It's also one between establishment and anti-establishment factions, for the most part. And as I've said a million times, the status quo is untenable.
Here's the unedited section for comparison:
This is a Democratic blog, a partisan blog. One that recognizes that Democrats run from left to right on the ideological spectrum, and yet we're all still in this fight together. We happily embrace centrists like NDN's Simon Rosenberg and Howard Dean, conservatives like Martin Frost and Brad Carson, and liberals like John Kerry and Barack Obama. Liberal? Yeah, we're around here and we're proud. But it's not a liberal blog. It's a Democratic blog with one goal in mind: electoral victory. And since we haven't gotten any of that from the current crew, we're one more thing: a reform blog. The battle for the party is not an ideological battle. It's one between establishment and anti-establishment factions. And as I've said a million times, the status quo is untenable