Full Disclosure: I’m a daily consumer of several political blogs, and frankly, the whole ‘Kos is against women’ dustup is ridiculous.
From my relative ‘outsider’ perspective, I see a horde of people who hate/are jealous of Kos overreacting, and being, dare I say — shrill.
Let’s look at this gem of a comment:
The spirit of his hero, Ronald Reagan? You know, the President who sponsored the slaughter of leftist rebels in El Salvador (where Kos’ family was allied with the right-wing elite)?
… he must be a right wing mole. Let’s judge him by his family history — how fair!
If you read the biography on DailyKos, Kos’ family moved back and forth between the United States and El Salvador.
Kos’ uncle was the Minister for Education for El Salvador during the 1980s. At the time Kos’ uncle was a government official, right-wing death squads were roaming the countryside, wiping out campesinos (peasants) who allied themselves with the political left.
The political class (those allowed to hold high office) in El Salvador has always been small: perhaps 30 families rotate the political offices amongst them. That means the Moulitsas family is, shall we say, well-connected. The very fact that they were allowed to leave El Salvador at that time says that they had a freedom of movement that the ordinary Salvadoran peasants sure didn’t have.
And yes, Kos has written many times that he admired Ronald Reagan. Reagan is Kos’ hero and the model of what a Republican ought to be.
…if he hasn’t ALWAYS been a liberal HE CAN’T BE TRUSTED!!!
Look — I don’t have much of a stake in this debate. I read plenty of blogs, and I’m a run of the mill partisan liberal (e.g. single-payer, dismantling the military industrial complex, public financing of elections, etc). I like Kos’s competitive, partisan view of the world. I think he’s a relatively inclusive person, and he’s been great for the morale of the Democratic party.
So if he doesn’t pass your purity test, tough shit. People listen to him because his tone/style/substance strikes a chord — and that’s a good thing.
I’ve read his post over and over again, and I just don’t see what you guys see. I think a lot of Markos’ critics have been blinded by anger/jealousy. I’m sure there’s a basis for these opinions, but I haven’t been exposed to it — and again, I read leftist blogs EVERY DAY.
I guess I’m just more partisan than some of you — I don’t think we should be attacking Markos, at least, not for something like this.
And picking apart the guys past? Seriously, that’s more than just counterproductive. It’s paranoid.
