Kos has written his best and most important piece in over a year. I totally stand by all of it (including the part about Steve McMahon). What I don’t understand is why it took Kos so long to come to this conclusion, and why others, like Chris Bowers and Matt Stoller, seem to be staggering rather than running to embrace Dean 2.0.
Maybe Hillary Clinton’s personality blinded people. Maybe her gender was weighed too heavily. Maybe they took her voting record and policy positions at face value. Maybe they just craved partisanship. Maybe they were just afraid to stand up to the ‘inevitable’ candidate. But, for me, this has always been a contest between the DLC and the netroots/grassroots, with Obama and Edwards on one side and Clinton on the other.
We netrootsers have been going into battle every day for five-six years without the Clinonistas at our side. Half the time, and on the most critical issues, they have been standing on the opposing sidelines or actively undercutting our positions. How could any blogger/activist have ever seen the Clinton campaign as anything other than the mortal enemy of the movement, I don’t know.
How many times have I stood alone in fighting this battle? How much time has been wasted talking about meaningless differences in health care plans or partisan ‘framing’? So many in the Netroots turned out to be either cowards or pinheads…all the while the McAuliffes, Begalas, Penns, Ford Jr.’s, Carvilles, Bayhs, Carpers, and Liebermans were out plotting to steal our lunch, if not castrate us outright?
It sure is refreshing to see that Kos gets it. I hope the rest will get it soon, too.
