On Steven D’s frontpaged post about the obviously slanted coverage of Ykos by the media…all media, because all media has a line to which they must hew…How NPR Covered Yearly Kos this Morning, Bootribber Ghandi quoted the ORIGINAL Ghandi’s line:

First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you.  Then they fight you. And then you win.

To which I added this cautionary variation:

Or:

First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you.  While simultaneously co-opting you. And then you lose.

We MUST be careful, here.

VERY careful.

Yes, Left Blogovia offers hope.

But it IS young, naive and slightly hippy-like.

Its functioning base is, anyway. Mostly.

And they will EAT US UP if they can.

CHOMP go the sushi eaters at Warners’ bash.

“Heeeeeyyyy! This guy ain’t half BAD!!!”

CLOMP goes the co-opt meter.

BET on it.

I got one word for you Warner brothers (And sisters, too.)

Iraq.

Put THAT in your nori roll and smoke it.

To which boran2…who was there in Lost Values, NV…answered:

AG, I would respectfully submit that you would have been quite impressed with the attendees.  Unlike the “popular” perception, many are not babes in the woods.  In fact, I found the “babes” were few and far in between.  Many attendees are seasoned activists.  Your concerns are appreciated but this group doesn’t seem particularly amenable to seducton by wining and dining.  My own mind was not changed by the party or any similar events.

Which is a long-winded way of setting up this diary, essentially a reprint of my reply to this comment.

Read on if you care.

If you dare.

Y’know. boran2, I am glad that you were unmoved by the hype. And I trust that any number of others were equally unseduced. Not ENOUGH others, however. Especially those who have banned their way to the top of the King of the Hill pile we laughingly refer to as Big Orange.

I’ve been to a few of left blogworld’s meetups; I have been very interestedly looking at the various photo posts that have gone up from Las Vagueness, and I have been reading quite widely regarding what happened there.

Eyewitness reports only.

And here is what I have seen (and what I am still seeing) in this scene.

Mostly.

Present company excluded.

I think.

I hope.

I am seeing the same kinds of people I met when I took my 7 year mid-life hiatus in a “liberal” middle/upper middle class bedroom suburb of NYC. White 20/30/40-something college graduate professional people. The vast majority of whom I most DEFINITELY would not want at my back in a bar fight. A REAL one. YOU know…the kind where the knives and broken bottles come out? Like they do at a political convention the outcome of which can be measured in literally quadrillions of dollars worth of power? Nice people. Peaceful, well meaning people. Who over and over and over again demonstrated their innocence and naivete to me in political systems large and small. In PTAs. In town meetings. In town elections. At parties. In national elections. In conversations during Little League games.

And of course…at said meetups.

One in particular.

Right here in NYC.

Maybe 40 Kossers at a bar. Nice people. Saying very little of substance. Actually believing that the Little Man in the Bad Fitting Suit, Fernando Ferrer, had a chance against the EMPTY Suit (But what a suit it was!!!) Bilbo Bagman “I Am The Manager. I Will Manage You” Bloomberg. Most of whom hung on every word of a visiting quasi mob-connected nightlife hustler on the make who was running as some sort of ombudsman with a halfassed vision of an internet-connected NYC populace practicing a form of direct democracy (As if people living in projects and on welfare could all afford such luxuries as home internet connections and had the leisure time/trust in White America to use them.) as his own stepping stone to further fame and fortune. Las Vegas/Atlantic City/Donald Trump/Steve Wynn/crooked frontman wannabe just DRIPPED off of him. New Age v.3. When I suggested to the Kossers (After said hustler had finished his spiel, gone to the bathroom for a goodbye toot of whatever he was putting up his nose, called his limo driver to come around to the bar and pick him up, called his “friends” to tell them that he would meet them at some corny dance club and left.) that he had ducked my (VERY well informed by my long life in the nighttime/nightlife/club/bar part of NYC) gently tendered question about how he absolutely, positively must have had to deal with some…shady characters…in his business as a club owner/promoter (Like in order to get a liquor license? Have liquor delivered? Get linen services? Have the garbage picked up? Mainstream NYC nightlife shit. I’ve got friends that run clubs. I know DAMNED WELL what they have to do, and who they have to deal with.), they reacted by saying “Oh. Well. He IS a politician, after all. Would you like another glass of wine?” As if not dealing with a topic that is a VERY salient fact in the area in which he was running…just like not dealing with Iraq in Warner’s case…was perfectly OK. After all, he HAD come down to the meetup, and he was the only politician who did so. (This guy lost bigtime to the Dem machine in the primary, by the way. Which in turn lost even BIGGER-time to the Ratpub machine. As above. so below. Bet on it. Warner’s not going ANYWHERE. And neither are the Dems if they do not get their act together.)

And many of the “seasoned activists” of which you speak?

I am sorry, boran2. Given the fact that they MUST be mostly under the age of 80 and started their activist seasoning at no younger than about 20…then please tell me what positive results their activism has had in this country in the last 60 years or so?

A country that has slowly and inexorably slid SO FAR to the right during their tenure as activists that it is now poised to slide right off of the flatland Democracy-ruled earth as we know it into some reality-based version of 1984 techno-fascism.

I don’t see it, boran2.

Sorry…I’m rooting for the home team, but Casey just ain’t hitting the ball.

And I see a HUGE hitch in his swing.

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Yup.

Huge.

So it goes…

I could fix Shaquille O’Neal’s free throw shooting woes, too, if he had the sense to listen.

Really. (It’s the same as playing an instrument. He goes out of time when he steps to the free throw line. Watch.)

But he’s too full of himself to even CONSIDER it.

As above, so below.

So it goes.

Best of luck in 2008.

Warner?

I don’t think so.

But I’ll betcha that Moulitsos runs for something, soon.

BET on it.

Later…

AG