I stopped attending Netroots Nation conferences after 2009 when it became apparent to me that the movement wasn’t so much leftist as anti-establishment. But I still enjoy reading pieces on the conference that seem more anthropological than political. What are those crazy liberals saying this year?
In any case, it seems that the People’s Front of Judea has rejected the Judean People’s Front as a bunch of wankers. The decision to hold next year’s conference in Arizona has been rejected by Markos Moulitsas who will withhold support from Daily Kos. Netroots Nation was originally called “Yearly Kos,” so this is a very significant schism.
It’s a schism based on opposition to Arizona’s passage of SB 1070, but it probably will manifest itself as a split on the online left between those who support Hillary Clinton’s campaign and those who don’t. That’s not how Markos has framed the issue, but he’s positioned Daily Kos to the left of the Netroots Nations movement as a whole.
Arizona should be “in play” for the Democratic nominee in 2016, but campaigning there in 2015 will be taboo for a segment of the online left. I don’t disagree with Markos’s reasoning on this, but it’s unfortunate that this chasm has opened up.
