The Washington Post describes Yearly Kos as the other national convention.
The common assumption is that the Net roots is monolithic and full of ideologues. It is neither. It is made up of people who are mostly interested in getting Democrats elected — and making sure Democrats stay in power.
Meanwhile E. J. Dionne gets it
Daily Kos is often described as liberal, but it is, more than anything, partisan. Its core assumption is that ideological conservatives made the Republican Party their vehicle and rallied in lock step against Democrats. The party of FDR and JFK needed to find the same discipline. The key litmus tests for Kos and his many allies in the blogosphere involve not long lists of issues developed by the American Civil Liberties Union or the AFL-CIO, but loyalty in standing up against Bush and doing what’s necessary to build a Democratic majority.
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It is a constant puzzlement to me that Democratic activists are regarded as “partisan” while right wing Republicans like Castle are regarded as “bipartisan” centrists. Moreover, when partisanship is practiced by Democrats it is BAD and “extreme” , but when practiced by George Bush and Mike Castle they are “resolute” and “firm”.
Well if being partisan is bad, I don’t want to be right. I think we can all agree that it was the lack of staunch partisanship on the part of liberals and Democrats opened the door to the rank kakistocracy of the Bush/Cheney/Delay/Castle years.