Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas talks with The UpTake’s Jacob Wheeler about the state of the progressive movement.
Netroots Nation got its start as the YearlyKos Convention, so it was appropriate for DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas to stop by The UpTake booth during Netroots Nation 2010, which is held this year in Las Vegas. He pulled no punches about the Democrats’ performance and what was needed to win.
On jobs and the economy. The Democrats haven’t done enough, Moulitsas said. “That’s gonna come back and bite ‘em in the ass in November.”
On what progressive activists can do to force the administration to make the right kinds of change: “Oh, Jesus Christ, what do we do to get them to listen? Become conservatives, apparently, because the second you’re a conservative and they tell you ‘jump,’ you’ll ask how high.”
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On hot-button issues: “We’re not asking the administration to do the impossible.” Moulitsas continues, legalizing gay marriage is the moral and positive thing to do, but we understand the country isn’t ready for it.
On President Obama: There are two crowds, the “Obama Sucks” Crowd who realizes we’re still in Afghanistan and the “Obama Rocks” crowd, which is finding things they’re not happy about
We’re asking for what they promised for in the last election. “We’re asking for things that are popular in the polling, and they’re not responding, and that’s what’s frustrating, and they’re not delivering on what they promised.”
“They’re full of excuses. God knows they’re full of excuses. Harry Reid from Day One kept whining about sixty votes. You never heard Bill Frist whine about sixty votes., right? But Harry Reid couldn’t stop talking about sixty votes because it was a convenient excuse.”
On progressive versus right-wing influence: “We gotta remember the Conservatives spent 30 years building their movement from Barry Goldwater’s defeat in 1964 to taking over Congress in 1994. It was a thirty-year process. We’re in year eight, I think, of our process. So we got a while to go. “
Having more and better Democrats in Congress, Moulitsas said, should embolden the White House to deliver on its promises.
On the media, Moulitsas observed, “I wish we mattered enough where our mistakes mattered enough.” “Rush Limbaugh has the ability to reach 20–40 million people a week. I have the ability to reach two million people a month.
Despite his assessment, Moulitsas remains optimistic. “When the dust settles, I hope the candidates that we back are victorious.”