I’ve been a lurker here for VERY long time. In fact, I just realized 13 years since I ran across this site while trying to find articles about Howard Dean’s primary battle that weren’t from a skewed, right-wing perspective. Today I was finally inspired to register, so I could write a diary…about why I’m done coming here. Feels pretty pointless, but I need to vent.
I’ve become very attached to this site. Like I said, I’ve been coming here since 2003, and during that time it has become my go-to source for political news/discussion. Since that’s my favorite kind of news/discussion, that means I come here pretty much every single morning while I drink my first cup of coffee and wake up.
I’m done though. I’ve been almost exclusively a front page reader for most of the time I’ve read DailyKos. I rarely delve into the comments sections, but I will sometimes wade through the recommended lists if there’s something in particular I want to read about.
That’s the reason why a few months ago I started getting frustrated with the articles. The quality took a noticeable dip, and it took me a while to realize it. For the most part, the front page articles were focused on the circus that is the Republican race. But I wasn’t all that interested in that. The Republican race is what it always is, a series of rehashed talking points and falsehoods repeated ad-nauseum. I wanted to read about our primary, the Democratic primary.
This is where I can no longer avoid saying I’m a Sanders supporter, and have been since listening to his Brunch With Bernie segments on the Thom Hartmann shows on AM1090-Seattle many years ago. You see, my state (Washington, in case you don’t know where Seattle is) doesn’t have the benefit of voting early in the primary season. Even though we’re reliably Democratic, we usually have no say in who the nominee will be. In 2008, it was refreshing to actually go to a caucus that mattered! I’m looking forward to doing this year (hopefully).
Anyway, I finally started digging deeper through the site, and realized that there was a decided Hillary-bias in the front page articles. It was startling to me. I didn’t remember that being the case in 2008, so I had assumed DailyKos was still a place for the inter-party discussions to play out without a particular bend. Things change, that’s fine. But today, kos has basically said that anti-Hillary talk on this site will be punished so we can move on to the general election. Remember, my state hasn’t voted yet, and my primary source for political talk has declared my constitutional input into this race is a moot point, along with all the other states that haven’t voted. No state that even resembles mine has voted yet. We have not been represented, at all! It’s frustrating in normal primary years where there’s not a significant challenge, but this year the candidate I support has a entirely surmountable deficit considering the states that have pledged delegates so far versus the states that have not yet voted. It’s premature, and it’s strangely elitist.
I want to say that I understand the dilemma. This primary battle has become heated and personal, and people are getting their feelings hurt all over the place. This site has always seemed to have the intention of uniting the party while pushing it to the left, so to see it become so divisive must be a little painful for kos. But in this site’s seeming intention there lies an irony.
This is where I learned how not every Dem is really a Dem. This is where I learned about Blue Dogs. This is where I learned about Lieber-Dems. This is where I learned about the DLC, and Third-way, and all the other astro-turf organizations paying lip-service to the progressive base while undermining its goals. This site was my education in progressivism! I donated money to progressives dedicated to taking down the Wall Street democrats who were making deals with Republicans and moving us all backward.
To me, Bernie Sanders is finally a candidate that represents those efforts on a national level, and this sites that I’ve relied on year after year, is throwing him under the bus for the candidate whose spouse started the DLC. Who is a proud member of Third-Way. Who supported all the trade deals that have turned the working class in this country into a low-demand workforce.
Then I hear about how terrible the Sanders supporters are being in the comment sections. And I take a look. Yeah, the level of discourse has degraded for sure, just as it did in 2008. But I do not see it as one-sided. I see mocking tones coming from Hillary supporters, Sanders supporters responding with hyperbole, Hillary supporters responding with further, more blatant mocking and a general unsolicited message of “don’t let the door hit ya...” Followed by swearing, more swearing, then just plain disdain. From BOTH sides! And you have to be blinded by bias not to see that.
It’s a vicious cycle, but it’s only being perpetuated further by the message sent today, which had a plain subtext: “On March 15th, we will have decided that Hillary is the Nominee of the Democratic party. After that, if you point out that she is everything you’ve spent your energy and money as a progressive fighting against, those points will be labeled as right-wing attacks and you will be banned.”
Fine. It’s your site, and you are free to make decisions as you see fit. That decision, as far as I’m concerned, undermines everything this site has taught me. How can Hillary be moved to the left if she’s allowed an early pivot to claim the right-center away from the Republicans? It is what she will do. She, like the rest of my parents’ generation, see that as conventional wisdom. Move to the “center” for the general election. I think it’s bullshit, but that is the next step her advisors will tell her needs to happen. Well, we know her center is very far to our right, so please don’t be surprised by this upcoming shift, especially if she thinks she can gain even more right-wing ground from the very far right-wing Republican nominee.
Next, her governing strategy, explicitly stated, is to get things done with the right wing congress. If you don’t think that’s explicit, look at the context. “Bernie won’t be able to pass any of these things because the Right-Wingers in congress will stop him. I can get things done.” That means more triangulation. More starting negotiations from positions they believe Republicans will accept. Honestly, I’d rather no new laws passed than have another NAFTA, or Communications Act, or any number of triangulated bills worked out with bankers that only served to further the right wing’s long game.
I’m going to stop my rant here. I really just needed to vent all that before I look for another source of progressive news and activism that is still looking forward. You don't know me, but I’ve probably read you.
Goodnight and goodbye!