John Cole calls left-wingers "jackasses." Kos responds

[Irish_shark]

Too long to post in full. Here's Cole's statement:

Why is it that all the people who claim to be the base turn out to be self-serving, self-promoting jackasses who have very narrow agendas and love to inform us that if the Obama administration does just what they want them to do right when they want them to do it, they will “keep the base.” Otherwise, if they don’t fulfill their agenda right then and there, they will “lose the base.” And strategically, it always works out so well- see demanding the public option be put in the Senate Bill and shutting down the Snowe negotiations.

Parts of Kos' response:

John is a friend, so I say this with genuine respect -- yes, the Democrats have a base problem. And no, it's not because of Ed Schultz, me, Jane Hamsher, or anyone else. Let's be real, we're just not that powerful.

Daily Kos gets about 2 million unique visitors per month, plus maybe a couple more million reading other progressive blogs. Ed (and Olbermann and Maddow) probably get that many watching their shows every month. There's overlap, so let's say 3-5 million progressives reading blogs and watching MSNBC's prime time lineup -- a pittance compared to the 16 million or so that listen to Limbaugh every week, and the 2-4 million that watch Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck every night. Huffington Post is getting about 16 million unique monthly visitors these days, but 80 percent of that is entertainment, and the other 20 percent is split among business, sports, living, style, green, technology and finally politics.

Point is, our media machine is tiny. We don't have the power to move our base around.

And heck, we don't even reach much of our base. 18-29 year-olds, a key component of the Democratic base, don't read blogs or watch MSNBC. Neither do African Americans or Latinos, at least in significant numbers. Yet look at these voter intensity numbers:

Read it all: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/1/18/826443/-Canaries-in-the-coal-mine

[rurallib]

1. Who's John Call?

[Irish_shark]

4. John Cole. I fixed the typo. He's an ex-Republican who turned Democrat in 2007

Here's his announcement that he had turned Democrat in 2007: http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=8971

[Sebastian Doyle]

5. So another DLC Repuke in Democratic clothing telling us how to run OUR party?

Well, here's my message to John Cole then:

[frazzled]

8. Just like Kos, who is an ex-Republican /nt

[inna]

10. and Arianna Huffington, too, of course. nt

[roguevalley]

12. may I second your message, Sebastian? Nothing like a dem of 'long standing'

to offer his 'wisdom'. For some pugs, once a pug, always a pug. He's one of them.

[rurallib]

2. delete - computer goofy

[fascisthunter]

3. these public figures have used us enough

it's time they realize who is who... if they worked as hard against the GOP as they do shitting on the left, we might actually have an opposing party. But the money is just too good isn't it?

[invictus]

9. +1

[grantcart]

6. Nail meet head

"Let's be real, we're just not that powerful."

[rucky]

7. There were no Snowe "negotations"

that was a Snowe job from the second she opened her cakehole.

[Dogmudgeon]

11. K&R -- this is THE problem we face

"Job One" should be getting more Democrats active enough to participate. It will be far more effective than what we are doing now -- sitting at our computers, raging about the DLC and corporations and how the Democratic Party MUST move to the left or face our impotent wrath.

We don't even have to push the voters leftward. Simply getting them active will automatically do that: the newly-active Democrats will be emboldened with new hope, and the elected Democrats will know that they have popular backing to buck the big money that now calls the shots.

See the Tea Baggers? We need some left-wing Coffee Achievers ...

--d!