Hunting The Muse

Kos and Mercenaries

Well, the political blogland has seemingly exploded with an utterly stupid controversy.

The details are that Kos accused the murdured civilians in Fallujah of being mercenaries, and said he didn't mourn them, and "screw them". Then later, after some people got upset at him, he offered an explanation about his first-hand knowledge of mercenaries from growing up in El Salvador. The original comment was to someone else's diary post, and it was clear that in hindsight it was a hot-headed expression of his emotions that didn't completely express his real feelings on the matter.

So, a bunch of right-wingers seized upon the comment, and started making noise about it. They noticed Kos had three Democratic candidates advertising on his weblog. These right-wingers wrote the Democratic candidates complaining about Kos' statement. First, just reflect on the manipulative dishonesty behind that action. They complained to Democrats. (They also made racist comments and threatened his family and suggested mailing a bag of dogshit to his house, but I don't believe they informed the Democratic candidates of this.)

And, in a stunning display of who really has DeanSpines and who just pretends they do, these Democratic candidates wrote back to these right-wingers, disavowed Kos' statement, and removed their advertising from his weblog.

I wrote one of the candidates the following message:

most of these guys expressing indignation about Markos post about the mercenaries are right-wing wingnuts.  They're strategizing it because they want to hurt Markos.  I know it's politically difficult to appear as if you're agreeing with him, but refusing to pull down your ads isn't the same as agreeing with every comment kos posts to his own weblog.  I think you guys are being manipulated.  The way the right wing wins is to slowly convince their opponents to turn against their own power.  Put your foot down and say that just because you advertise on his weblog doesn't mean you agree with everything he says.  That's what being a democrat is about.

The right-wingers got a reply from this yahoo. I didn't.

Then today, the Kerry campaign publicly delinked Kos.

Many people have commented on this brouhaha.

My thoughts: Delinking Kos was a stupid tactical thing to do. The easiest defense to this would have been to say, "It's a discussion site. We're not responsible for everything that is said on that site. We're just advertising to their audience. No, of course we don't endorse everything they say, you lying idiot. Shut up. Begone, Satan." Well, maybe not in those precise words, but along those lines.

This is a very old pattern that happens over and over again. Someone tries to attain power, gets uncomfortable with it, and then their doubts become large enough that the enemies can dig their hooks in. Once you start realizing that this is what it is about, it's easy to see the pattern. By folding to the right-wing here, these candidates have displayed that they can be manipulated. They're not the real deal. These guys are marked now.

And, this really has nothing to do with Kos, or Fallujah, or the comments he made. It's bigger. For a while, blogs were separate from the real political scene. Even through Dean's candidacy, the blog was like the silly mascot. But now blogs are embedded in the political scene. Whether it was the displays of donating money, or several name bloggers seen at the DNC dinner, or the combination of countless other dynamics, this has just been a bigger, silent, massive wave of new power dynamics that has all of us in its wake. If it weren't Kos and Fallujah, it would have been some other big-name blogger and some other controversial issue. The change is that the bloggers are new cards in the playable deck, and the game is trying to make people turn against their own power.

And to demonstrate how much the old way of politics still doesn't get it - they don't understand that pulling away leaves a lot of space hungry to be filled. No matter how much these folks pander, they can't run away from the fact that supporters are hungry for spine. And this guy is the first to step up and fill it. I don't know anything about Kos' donation rate, but I'd love to see this create some shockwaves. If this guy gets two or three times the expected rate of funds, we could see some more interesting shifts.

And that's the way it should be. Atrios is delinking Dem candidates in return. I think this is precisely the wrong way to handle this. I think that if you girlfriend is unsure about you, the answer is to love her harder, not pull away in response. Show them what free speech is, don't back down, keep the links up, and let them show their true colors. These candidates need to learn that they'll be rewarded for being true leaders that don't fold. I'm thinking of donating money to Seemann even though he's in frigging Ohio, just because I know where he stands now in a way that I didn't about those other yahoos.

Posted by Curt at April 5, 2004 03:38 AM