Daily Kos

I read the Daily Kos, well, daily. It's a great source for news and political opinion. It's also unabashedly liberal. They guy who runs it is Markos Moulitsas (in the pic).

I don't read Kos, and a few other political blogs, because I'm looking for direction in my political viewpoint - but, rather, more clarity. I think too many people (mostly wingers) go looking for somebody to tell them what their opinion should be. Markos has been very helpful in refining my viewpoint and getting me to think about issues I hadn't considered before.

It's also interesting to see what's happening with him as a blogger. The fact is, he's becoming exceptionally influential in the Democratic party, and that's a very good thing. Just as George Bush brought focus to the right wing, Markos is in the process of doing that for the left. The difference is, Markos can pronounce "nuclear". In fact, he's a very bright guy.

The reason I think he's important is because there is a war going on within the Dem establishment, pushing the party to the right. Markos is arguing forcefully for the Democrats to stay loyal to our core values. I completely agree with him. In fact, I think most every American is liberal. They just don't know it it yet - and it's up to all of us to make that case.

To give you some idea of the scope of this, his web blog gets about 8 million unique visitors a month. That is astonishing. I don't think CNN gets 8 million unique viewers per month. Markos and a few of the other highest profile bloggers must be scaring the bejebus out of the mainstream media.

He's also exceptionally qualified. If you look at most pundits on the right, they completely lack qualification. Markos has multiple degrees, including a law degree, and has served in the Army. Compare that to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reiley and the rest of the right wing pundits.

I don't say all of this as some sort of worship for the guy, but just out of respect for a person who "gets it". I spend a lot of time bagging on the religiously crazy, and politically ignorant. I wanted to get on record that there are, indeed, a lot of exceptionally smart, rational, people in the world. I also think he's going to be a major player in Democratic politics - going so far as national office, if not the top job itself, assuming of course that he has any office ambitions at all.

Here's something that he wrote today. I read it and thought - this was what I've been saying, but in a different sort of way, for weeks. He connects the dots and extends thinking beyond specific issues. I wish I could write this concisely.

Once upon a time, it was easy for the American Right to smear its opponents on the left -- they could simply equate them with the nation's communist enemies. It didn't matter that the American "left" (Democrats) had more in common with the Right than international communism, the smear was useful.

Now, however, our international enemy -- Islamic radicalism -- is actually the polar opposite of what liberals stand for -- their actions on women rights are deplorable, they insist on theocracy, they loooveee torture and the death penalty, they demand to control the culture (TV, movies, music), they rail against rampant sexuality, they seek to spread their ideology via force, and they have a well-defined black-and-white sense of truth.

Remind you of a certain American party?

That's why hysterical assertions by the wingers that liberals hate America and want the terrorists to win are so absurd. As absurd as it would've been to claim that Reagan wanted the Communists to win the Cold War. The Taliban/Al Qaida/Hezbollah/Jihadists of the world are the exact embodiment of evil in the liberal mind. They are everything we are against, and against everything we are for.

In fact, they are exactly what we see in the Republican Party as the GOP continues to consolidate power -- creeping theocracy, moralizing, us versus them, embrace of torture, the need to constantly declare jihad on someone, hysterics over football-game nipples, control over "decency" on the airwaves, lyrics censorship, hostility to women freedoms, curtaling of civil liberties, and so on.

So it's pretty obvious -- we don't love terrorists. We don't want them to win. For them to win would be to realize our greatest fears. The muslim terrorist is truly the anti-liberal. Like matter and anti-matter.

Republicans, on the other hand, hate the terrorists because they're Muslim. But aside from that, they've got far more in common than they'll ever admit to themselves.

And it's high time we started to make that connection more forcefully.

If you're a right winger, and you wonder why liberal's really dislike you as much as it seems, it's because it's true, essentially we see you as the same thing as the Islamic fundamentalists. There's not much of a difference between the two to the liberal mind. You just worship a different prophet.

If you draw Markos' point to it's logical conclusion, what is the essence of what we see happening in the world? There really isn't a whole lot of difference between the religious right in American, and the hard core Islamic theocrats in the middle east. Both sides agree on most every issue - except one. Who is the true prophet of God? Is it Jesus or Mohammed? That's what the fighting is all about.

This is a holy war. Are you rapture ready? It's something to think about.

- UPDATE -

I just noticed something. Ya think there might be a biological basis for political persuasion? Look at the pictures I've posted of the wingers and Republicans. Contrast that to the picture of Markos.

The picture of Markos is stylish and textured. He's looking all happy, with his smart jacket and t-shirt look. He looks modern and progressive, not old and stale. He doesn't have TV preacher hair - but more of an 'I just rolled out of bed' progressive look.

Republicans and wingers look constipated and basicaly unhappy all the time. They look like this..