The YearlyKos could be the last hurrah of this new hard left, the way Woodstock was the final note of the song of the Sixties.
YearlyKos is a get-together of hard left bloggers organized by DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas. DailyKos claimed, perhaps rightly, responsibility for the Democrat Congressional victory in 2006–much the way Hammas might claim victory for blowing up an Israeli schoolhouse.
The Kos and Democratic Underground people who filled attendee list are the kind of folks who giggle at Dick Cheney’s heart problems, wish al Qaeda victory in its war against the West, and popped bottles of bubbly upon hearing of Chief Justice Roberts' seizure. They gloat with a parent’s satisfaction at a child’s first words when news of US military deaths hits the airwaves, and they blush with post-coital splendor when an SUV kills pedestrians. They are, in short, what is left clinging to the toilet bowl after three flushes.
The Democrat candidates for president strode into their den on Saturday last to beg for more good press on the blogs and to beg for more money. These candidates–Clinton, Obama, Edwards, and the rest–sucked up to people barely fit to be called people.
But actions speak louder than words. The Kos folk most earnestly want America to lose the war on terror, beginning in Iraq, and ending, presumably, in Wichita, Kansas. They have no idea what life is like in an Islamic dictatorship, but they are certain it’s preferable to life in these United States where upper middle classers kills spotted owls with emissions from their 4X4 vehicles. Kos (used generically for the ilk) expected the Democrat Congress to cut off military funding and to impeach President Bush. The actions, though, of this Congress have fallen well short of that goal. Instead, the Democrat 110th Congress behaves legislatively much like the Republican 109th. Much talk, little action, and passing whatever Bush asks for.
This explains why Hillary Clinton was booed more than she was cheered. It explains why Cindy Sheehan is running against Nancy Pelosi. UPDATE: Michelle Malkin says Ms. Clinton received more cheers than boos. I didn’t hear it, so I’ll go with Michelle.
Ed Morrissey summarizes the Congress well:
When push comes to shove, especially on war-related issues, the Democrats have failed almost every time to fulfill their campaign promises. The FISA legislation should enrage the Democratic base. The action by Congress this weekend essentially ratifies the NSA’s warrantless wiretap program. After its exposure in December 2005, the DKos community and the rest of the Left that propelled the Democrats to power insisted that the TSP was one of the leading examples of the Bush administration’s attack on freedom and liberty. The Senate promised to hold investigations into its operation and to even perhaps impeach George Bush for violating the Constitution.
The Democrats, then, have proven that their word is no good. As Morrissey later explains, the Democrat candidates in 2006 sold a bill of goods to the hard left, leaving their supporters with empty hopes and empty wallets. (Then again, that’s what the Democrat party has done to the people since Roosevelt first seized power.) Imagine the outcry had Newt Gingrich in January 1995 declared the Contract with America too difficult to carry out. The MSM would have had the Republicans throats, and the GOP would have overwhelming lost power a decade earlier than it did.
The last time the hard left influenced an election was 1974. Richard Nixon was already gone, and the Democrats who entered Congress in 1975 went about the business of destroying the economy, eviscerating the military, and giving the country a case of malaise. While the YearlyKos participants were hoping that Nancy Pelosi’s party would do the same this time, the new Congress seems more likely to leave the country more or less as it found it.
UPDATE: LGF noticed that Terrorist Poetry was big hit at the YK.