A few observations on kos’ latest gem…
Way back when this presidential primary campaign started, I noted that it would be interesting to watch how it would all play out here at Daily Kos. This was the first contested Democratic presidential primary where the bulk of the DKos front page posters backed one candidate, and the majority of the rank-and-file backed another candidate. When it became clear this was the case, I wondered how this split would manifest itself here.
Shortly after the campaigns officially kicked off, it became evident that this dynamic would be contentious. The embarrassingly saccharine front page posts (accompanied by adoring soft-focus photographs) of Clinton’s “listening tour” laid down the marker for what has ensued. (When one of the front pagers recently penned a piece describing how she ultimately switched from Sanders to Clinton, I had to laugh. When had this front pager ever been for Sanders, given the author’s fawning adoration of Clinton nearly from the moment Clinton announced?)
I never believed Sanders would pose a threat to Clinton, and, I suspect, neither did Clinton, her campaign, or most of her supporters, including her backers here, on the front page and among the members. So back then, we were treated to posts and comments treating Sanders like someone’s cute little brother, both from the Clinton backers on the front page and in the comment sections of front page stories and diaries. They all went something like: “I love Bernie Sanders! We need him in the Senate!” The smarminess and condescension dripped from those posts.
When Clinton, the ever-crappy candidate, began to falter and Sanders became an actual threat, all of that obsequeious back-slapping quickly disappeared. Now, he was the enemy. Of course, kos was in kind of a bind. His rank-and-file membership preferred Sanders almost two-to-one, so the front page toned down its Clinton cheerleading and its Sanders criticism.
Meanwhile, the site was soliciting new membership like crazy. New members were posting their first stories, most explaining their excitement for Sanders’ candidacy.
It wasn't long before some of this Sanders support, particularly among more recent members, turned malignant in an anti-Clinton way. Certainly, from my perspective, there is much not to like about Clinton, not the least of which is her neocon-like approach to foreign policy in the Middle East.
In the Law of Unintended Consequences, kos got what he wished for: thousands of new subscribers, most of whom backed Sanders and had no use for Clinton.
Personally, I've been disgusted by the folks trying to tell black people how to vote or asking black people to explain backing Clinton in overwhelming numbers. And the people who write that they won't vote for Clinton are idiots, akin to the dark, bitter Clinton backers who became PUMAs in 2008. (Many of whom are now back here, reveling in being dicks and rubbing Sanders backers’ noses in Clinton’s gathering momentum.)
But there is a certain irony in kos and the site actively recruiting new members only to have kos now feel like he, essentially, must tell these folks to fuck off. Not including his recent post about how a Democratic Party revolution will have to start with people of color, he has spent the last two weeks cursing out much of his own site membership.
i have to be honest, it makes me laugh.
I think of what has gone on here the same way I think about what is going on in the Republican Party now. Kart Rove and the Kochs created the Tea Party to fight Obamacare, and now their Frankenstein monster has come back to destroy them. Not only that, but the Supreme Court campaign finance ruling that Rove and the conservative mucky-mucks thought would give them an overwhelming advantage, instead allowed a load of shitty candidates to stay in the race because they each had a single billionaire supporting them, thus, opening the door for Trump.
So now it's come down to this… kos has to issue an ultimatum.
Too fuckin’ funny...
kos, sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.