So, just because the so-called "Big Kahuna" issued marching orders in 2004 that this blog is dedicated to electing Democratic candidates to governmental office, that means we have to listen?
For some of us, its not the Democratic Party that is the most important thing, it is the issues that matter.
Sorry, but I found this post to be just a tad annoying.
Are we actually being told (again) that we should not support Cindy Sheehan, or any other progressive candidate that gets tired with the Democratic Party? Is this really what we should be doing?
To begin with, I love Cindy Sheehan. That doesn't mean I would necessarily vote or not vote for her, but the issue is, is this really what we want this blog to be, just a blog for the Democratic Party?
Isn't it more important to be a blog for real progressive change? And if that means, in certain situations, we tell the Democratic Party to go fuck itself, so be it.
Personally, I don't see how this blog can be progressive if it has a default setting that always brings it back to the Party's best interest. Sometimes the Party's interests are not progressive. We are better served by using this blog as a force to steer discussion and hopefully force the parties, any of them. Or is it just an echo chamber-- a place to whip people to fall in line.
The thing the Right does so well, is they allow their base to push the discussion. Their leaders see what their base wants, and they give them what they want in return, without any shame.
On the left, it seems to work in the opposite way. On the left, the leaders tell the base what the base should want, and the base is expected to fall in line.
Fuck that. This needs to stop.
We have spent the last 25 years in retreat. Running from words like "liberal", running from issues because we have led to believe that our views are somehow shameful. Why do we feel this way? Because our so-called leaders on our side are always so quick to compromise on their positions, always tacking to the Right. Meanwhile, the Right is always framing discussions, which as I already suggested, is typically framed by the most Right-wing of the base.
So, here we have the preeminent blog for progressivism, and we are being told that we are supposed to fall in line again. Sorry, I don't like it one bit.
Is this really Markos' blog anymore? I mean seriously, I know it's his, and I know he is to be thanked for doing all that he has done to make this blog what it is (thank you, dude!), but this blog is all about us, the bloggers, and what we think. It always has been, and hopefully it always will be.
There I said it.
And now, I leave you with a song.....