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YearlyKos
August 7th, 2007
I feel good about this DailyKos thing.
My expectations for YearlyKos were middling. I had not read DailyKos. Not in a long time. When I did read DailyKos, it was only when a right wing blog pointed out something crazy in the comments. To me, DailyKos was part of the blue versus red realm of the blogosphere. I expected to wander about, listening to extreme views and smiling politely. Or else, I might be treated to endless introspection, “what does the blogosphere all mean?” variety.
There were two sorts at the YearlyKos. There were operators, people who work in politics, who have an agenda and can’t be bothered with small talk.
Then there was everyone else. I liked these people. They were very easy to speak with. They were concerned with the economy and the war.
The Ann Arbor Art Fair came and went recently. I heard tell of it in the Ann Arbor Bi Bim Bop mailing list. At the Ann Arbor Art Fair they have a block running from Huron to Division along Liberty where people can have booths for political organizations. They have the Washetenaw Democrats and the Washtenaw Republicans and the Huron Valley Humane Society. That’s about it for normal. Everything else is peace thorough better breathing, marxism, and male circumcision. Everything else was Ann Arbor getting it’s weird on.
It would be an annual highlight in a city that held little of interest for me. To nod appreciatively with a knit brow while someone unraveled their conspiracy theories.
That was my point of reference.
But, that is not YearlyKos. The focus was on heath care, education, job creation and trade, on the domestic front. On foreign policy, people talked about Iraq, Iran, China, and the transparent wedge issue of Mexican immigration.
If this is the left wing of the Democratic Party, then the entire party has drifted to the center.
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Comments 
I’d say the Democrats as a whole are now right of center.
I’ve never been to perceptive of the left / right continuum. I think the Republicans are going to pursue their little wedge issues, like immigration, and make it obvious to everyone that they are a very exclusive club. Too exclusive to win elections. Maybe it will create space for a third party.
The entire left-right construct is worn out and needs to be retired.
Without substantial reform, our system will never allow a third party, though the two parties in power may change. I think the Democrats are more ripe for displacement than the Republicans.