So yeah. I was a big Deaniac way back in the process in those days. A LOT has changed since then and I'll do my best to outline it from memory but I think a lot of people will agree. I started following Howard Dean in early 2003. He was the only one with the guts to actually say what I felt at the time. Did you guys love dean? I remember feeling really connected to the campaign. I gave and felt like I knew what was going on. I had hope. I remember his 1 million dollar turkey sandwich lunch. I remember the bat. Everything was groovy. My sites back in those days were deanforamerica.com, dailykos.com and atrios.blogspot.com. DailyKos had yet to even move to the current format with diaries etc. Kos was mainly himself, and a few contributors later on. I joined Kos early (UID below 6,000). I just checked that the other day...I can't believe he's up to 100,000 these days! But a LOT has changed at Kos. It is seen as the sort of epicenter of online liberal thought these days but to me it's been very difficult to weed out good content. Obviously Kos, in those days, seemed to lean heavily towards Wes Clark. Then the Kerry guys came in after Iowa and I essentially lost interest to follow at that level detail anymore. But Kos used to be about personal information about the campaigns. Usually insights into things that didn't make it into the news. People on the ground in Iowa etc. explaining the situation. I always felt that I was somehow more informed than I would have been from reading the news sites. These days things are different. I am an Obama fan and most of the diaries are the typical "Rah Rah, my candidate, Rah Rah!" types. Even when I read pro-Obama articles, it's usually just relaying some bit of news that is posted somewhere. What happened to anecdotes from the ground? What is going on? Now all we have are diary wars with people bashing each other's candidates. The rival speculation threads "Where will Edward's supporters go?" spawning the "Where will Obama's supporters go?" is just childish and petulant. The worst thing is that it doesn't convince anyone of anything nor is it informative. So what does it accomplish? If I were on the fence and shopping around it wouldn't be helpful and being already decided it's just annoying too. What about blog entries detailing the way the various campaigns work? I'd like to see that. Despite the fact that more people are involved in the online presence this year, I feel that there is somehow less valuable information than ever. Very little detached sober commentary seems to make it to the front. Why is it this way? It's not easy to see. I think, firstly, because we know that we'll win next year. Before we had our hopes, but in the end really cared much more about beating Bush. This is different than the coming together that we'll eventually have here again because for us, this is essentially it. We know we'll win next year. Secondly, this year we have Hillary. She is obviously polluting the discourse. This is where I'll have to break impartiality but there it is. Finally, what's the deal with all of the Ron Paul hatred? I expected to see him get a BIT more support at dKos. It's sad. I'm not a Ron Paul guy, but I would have a hard time not voting for him if he were running against Hillary. This won't happen because he won't win obviously, but anyway, the reaction to him over there is completely ridiculous and hateful. I guess that's the thing. In the early dKos days I am not totally sure that it would have been the same. Ron Paul is a guy who realizes that things are seriously fucked up the way they are going these days and I have to respect that. I'd like to have him as the Republican nominee because he does seem to be my favorite on that side. And guess what I'm not alone. A lot of people like him because he's against a lot of the crap that Bush has done that has fucked up out country. The fact that he supports what are in my opinion a lot of bad ideas, doesn't change my mind that he's not an okay guy. I think we'll need a lot of people like him to change our country as well. So I guess what I'm trying to ask. Does anyone here feel this as well with the left-wing blogosphere? I want to come to these sites to gain crucial insider knowledge not stock opinions of the campaigns. Any other veterans agree? |
