Let the Democratic Götterdämmerung begin

. - by New deal democrat

One of my stock lines in conversations about Daily Kos is that "the most important diaries are jotter's." By that I mean that the daily statistical update shows a steady hemmorrhage of participants that started all the way back with the Obama vs. Hillary battles in 2008. Many Hillary supporters (see, e.g., The Confluence, one of the most underrated progressive political blogs there is) left and never came back. Others left with Blackwaterdog, or when Bonddad and I left, or after other battles.

Still, Kos has managed to maintain un uneasy balance between participants who fall on each side of the "more and better democrats" that is the self-proclaimed reason for his blog's existence.

Until now.

Just after the November elections, there was a host of commentary about how the GOP might split apart, torn between its Chamber of Commerce wing and its Tea Party Social Conservative wing. To the contrary, I countered, it was more likely that the Democratic Party would split between Progressives and Wall Street social liberals. With Obama's specific proposals of cuts to Social Security and Medicare, there is no more dodging the bullet. This is where "more" democrats has taken us. To a proposal made by a man who is a self-proclaimed 1980s Reagan Republican to roll back the New Deal and bring Reagan's revolution to fruition.

For many grass-roots democrats, this is a bridge - no, an ocean - too far. Any "democrat" who supports these proposals is never going to get my vote. Period. I will support any primary opponents and I will accept a one term GOPer if necessary to end the political career of any Grand Betrayers, replacing them with a progressive in 2 or 6 years. And I know I am far from alone.

There is no choice. The Rubicon has been crossed, the die have been cast. I know where I stand. Shortly people like Kos, who has been conspicuously silent on this issue, will have to as well. Specifically, he'll have to decide whether or not to ban about half his commenters, who are ready to bolt. Let the Götterdämmerung begin.