In response to a call from the Democratic Leadership Council’s Will Marshall for certain progressives to stop sounding so anti-American all the time (for instance, by declaring defeat and demanding troop withdrawal from Iraq, which in effect would hand Iraq over to a terrorist insurgency who many progressives seem to feel are less evil—or, at the very least, less our concern—than Chimpy McHitlerburton and his warmongering neocon cronies), Kos has thrown down the gauntlet, complete with the affected how dare he question our patriotism! subtext:
My draft version of this post included a whole refutation of Marshall’s aargument, but really, it’s all irrelevant. Ultimately, this is the modern DLC—an aider and abettor of Right-wing smear attacks against Democrats. They make the same arguments, use the same language, and revel in their attacks on those elements of the Democratic Party that seem to cause them no small embarrassment.
Two more weeks, folks, before we take them on, head on.
No calls for a truce will be brooked. The DLC has used those pauses in the past to bide their time between offensives. Appeals to party unity will fall on deaf ears (it’s summer of a non-election year, the perfect time to sort out internal disagreements).
We need to make the DLC radioactive. And we will. With everyone’s help, we really can. Stay tuned.
Translation? “Moderate” Democrats (like, say, Hillary Clinton?) need to be “made radioctive”—that is, smeared—for being the exact same kind of smear merchants the odious Rethuglicans are. Because like the Rethuglicans, these so-called “New Democrats” are more interested in putting a happy face on Amerikkka’s legal, moral, strategic, tactical, and public policy crimes than they are in Speaking Truth to Power—the upshot of which is that Amerikkka under the current warmongering Administration is a force for evil and stupidity, and that anyone of the 60 million or so people who supported it is a slackjawed Jesushumping yokel chickenhawk, whose intelligence must be routinely questioned and whose motives (maybe they, too, love oillllll and “neocons”) must be routinely impugned.
Or put more simply: “These traitors are hinting that our dissent may be something less than completely patriotic. WE MUST SMEAR THEM!”
Personally, I think it important that the Kos crowd be encouraged to grow louder and more strident (and the same goes for Cindy Sheehan, whom they’ve adopted as the face of their antiwar crusade), to look at what are largely media-driven polls critical of the President’s handling of Iraq and become emboldened enough by them to where they try to mainstream their Vietnam-era message that America is a meddling, hamfisted force for wrecking global chaos, and that as a power we must withdraw, Buchanan-like, into our own insular space, where (with a little help from our progressive betters, who will legislate us into a Utopia of tolerance) we can be transformed into the kind of soft socialist-democracy that much of Western Europe has become.
Unfortunately, Kerry was thought of in much the same way, and he was able to garner 48% of the vote in 2004. So you never can tell, I suppose…
(h/t Museum of Leftwing Lunacy)
****
update: James Joyner and Wizbang weigh in.
BINGO!
If Markos is serious about going taking the moonbat coalition “head to head” with Dem leadership, it’s a matchup that’s going to result in a severe swatting.
Imagine, if you will, that after such a political spanking Daily Kos went down. It would unleash a pestilence like the world has never known. What would the blogosphere would be like if there was no moonbat reservation?
How’d you like that double ‘would’ in there? Yeah baby, I’m like a artist with the verbiage.
“we can be transformed into the kind of soft socialist-democracy that much of Western Europe has become. “
I willing to take the chance of NYC and LA being nuked for this development. So what if a few of us are killed, we can live in an era of progressive rainbows and social justice.
And those of you who are against this are clearly fascist neocons. Or else you are on PNAC and Rove’s payroll.
War never solved anything. If you disagree, when are YOU going to sign-up (or will you continue to send our children to their meaningless deaths).
All these political maneuverings and PR/propaganda campaigns being ginned up by the Leftover Left make me wish that the blogs had been around back in ‘68.
Things would have been different.
War never solved anything.
Like hell it hasn’t.
Johnny has a new pander-letter up, btw. Shall we all go sign?
SB: help
War seemed to solve that Hitler problem we used to have. And war sure put an end to the whole ‘British Colonies’ problem we had a few hundred years ago. I can’t decide if the argument that war never solved anything is infantile, or just assfacedly arrogant. I could have sworn I head someone throw a chickenhawk in the background too, but surely we’ve been over that ground here too many times for someone to actually try and float that air biscuit.
Shank,
Our progressive buddies have not learned from the past and must be condemned to repeat it.
TW: hell, as in “Hell, yeah!”
How dare you SMEAR Kos by using his own words to show that he plans on SMEARING “moderate” democrats. Address the arguments, or shut up, SMEAR MERCHANT!!! They are the true PATRIOTS!!!
Seriously though, this is going to be entertaining. Can’t wait to see what Kos has planned.
The historical precedent for this Bold Action taken by political neophyte Markos Moulitsad is The Children’s Crusade. With Kos and Krew playing the part of the mob of children .
Personally, I can hardly wait for the show. TWO WEEKS! Bring it on, Kos!
I thought Kos was the flame that all the moonbats flew around. If that flame goes out, can you imagine all those moonbats on the loose with no direction?
Hell, they’d by flying around here bumping into things, like reality, reason and facts. W’d have to swat so many of them the floor would be a mess!!
Oh, by the way, is this the same Kos that is oh for sixteen in backing candidates?
At the risk of sounding like Senator McCarthy, after reading through several of the comments I noticed an awful lot of talk about the struggle between “people power” and “corporate power”.
I like the first sentence best. I mean, really, why bother with irrelevant refutation when you can just smear.
True, Kerry was thought of in that way to a degree, but he also had a Congressional vote for the war, as well as military service on his resume to mollify the “Tony Blair Democrats” as Marshall calls them. Hillary has no such benefit, but more interesting is this early fissure from the KOSsies. Clinton was integral to the DLC, which in turn was instrumental in garnering the votes of moderates.
Are the Moorites really willing to jeopardize the election by insisting on a hard-left Iraq response?
Which side will Dean side with? and will this distract from the Hill campaign?
If Hillary takes up the DLC, will the hard-Left be so incensed as to run a third-party canidate?
It’s early yet, but taking such an immovable stand and demanding the Party officially adopt the Moonbat plank would seem to portend a rocky 2008.
On the other hand, Kos could simply be rattling his sword–invariably dormant in its little sheath–in order to get DNC concessions later.
Did he really say “The DLC has used those pauses in the past to bide their time between offensives.”
There’s a deep thought for ya. They bided their time during the pauses. What else are you going to do during a pause?
Stalin had Molitov and Trotsky killed. Should Markos be any kinder when he sees traitors to the cause of worldwide Socialism?
BTW, besides the astute remarks made by Marshall, he couldn’t help tossing in,”Such antics give Democrats an opportunity to expose what lies beneath the fulsome facade of GOP patriotism—an atavistic nationalism in which the ruling passion is the will to power…”
is that close enough to call Godwin?
…although Cosima Cheney would be kind of catchy.
I strongly support Kos in attacking the DLC head on. I’ve been hoping for some time now that the Democratic Party would hurry up and explode. The sooner they go the way of the Whigs the sooner we can get around to replacing them with a decent alternative to the GOP. Unfortunately, It’s probably going to take several more election cycles for the Dems to finally see the futility in operating the way they are.
Yep. He really meant, “The DLC has called for hudnas in the past”.
TW—“george”. As in “George really does bring out the nutso in these people, doesn’t he?”
Wow, they’re going nuts over there.
And what could be funnier than watching a bunch of peaceniks and pacifists gear up for war? Maybe it’s backing a guy who has never won anything against the only viable part of the Democratic Party.
What’s Kos’s big plan? A bunch of sternly written e-mails, water balloons, or maybe even torture by having to sit in the big comfy chair?
I can’t what to see where Hillary ends up in all this, losing the only base she has, or becoming branded as the lib she is and facing defeat.
Don’t worry, guys. Even if Kos was to disappear, DU would still be there.
Man, they make Freepers look sane, calm, and collected.
Has Markos considered that he and the MoveOners and all of the other moonbats might actually, by their very natures, be genuinely embarassing? And I don’t mean just to other Democrats, or even to Americans in general. Those jokers are embarassing to humans as a species. Let me tell you, I’m getting sick of going to Sea World and hearing the dolphins snicker behind my back and make unflattering comparisons between me and Al Franken.
I thought the ultralibs were against nukes? Why should they change their minds now? I’ll tell you why: BECAUSE OF THE HIPOCRACY!!1!
Far Left idiots smearing Clinton could easily give the GOP 08, but it might be tough to stick stuff on her. She’s got some of the same teflon as her husband.
I’m laughing.
I had a Poli Sci course waaay back in the day when direct elect primaries were becoming the norm. I remember talking to the young professor, who seemed hip, about how cool it was to be taking the nominating process out of the “smoke-filled rooms” and giving the power to the people. (I was an insufferable populist back then) He shocked me by saying he wasn’t so sure it was a good thing, the old guys in the back room were pros after all, and turning it over to a populace of ill-informed amatuers might not be such a great idea.
He was right, it seems obvious to me now, and it looks like the Kos Kids are gonna take it to a whole new level.
A nude photo of Hillary Clinton in the arms of another woman has never solved anything.
RE: Sen. Clinton, the dKos regulars aren’t particularly happy with her, to put it mildly. Which is good news… for Sen. Clinton. Iowa and New Hampshire tend to punish those loved by the base.
As to Kos himself… (shrug) I seem to remember that he declared war on The New Republic, once. It’s still there.
Moe
It seems to me that little Marky Zuniga is the blogger equivalent of Ernesto, ”Don’t kill me, I’m Che!” Guevara, and indeed, he probably sees himself as such and likely encourages the same sort of cult-of-personality adoration from his fawning minions. Both are seen as charismatic, effective leaders and enjoy unquestioning, universal support from their adoring sycophants, and both are equally inept at the art of winning.
It amuses me when I see some libtard wearing a Che T-shirt, and I especially love bringing him up in conversation with his fashionistas, because they are universally ignorant of his complete incompetence at military leadership. Likewise, Zuniga’s fans don’t seem to grasp the fact that he is nothing more than the head lemming, and they are unquestioning following him over the cliff. All I can say is; Go Marky go!