The Antisemites and Derangers Won the Battle, But Not The War

At first glance, it would seem that the antisemites and Israel-derangers have cobbled together a victory. In a gradual battle of attrition over the past few years at Daily Kos, they have managed - through Markos' and Blades' ineffective and biased moderating, and their own unceasing use of zombies and sock puppets - to mainstream Israel derangement, and further the tolerance of antisemitic dog whistles there. More importantly they have driven off a very large number of Jewish (and other) posters who have either quietly or not so quietly stopped coming by, thus making that site even more aligned with their ideology, and less likely to push back.

But it has been a Pyrrhic victory.

Because as that site has changed to become more dominated by them - and even moreso by the other derangers like the Paulbots and the legions of people who think that Obama is absolutely identical to Bush and that the US is absolutely identical to North Korea - it has necessarily become less mainstream, and less relevant.

Think about the number of politicians and public figures who used to post at Daily Kos - back in the 2004 to 2009 era. Congressmen, Senators, and even ex-Presidents. And the way that back then Markos was on MSNBC, Bill Maher, and Colbert. And even the way that Daily Kos served as a boogey man for right wingers like Bill-O and Beck. All of that has changed. The politicians have noticeably dried up, Markos is out of the media eye, and the right wingers have even stopped noticing. That site is just not the central part of American liberal and/or Democratic politics that it was several years ago. Some of that might be related to the lack of a competitive Democratic Presidential primary this year, but I think most of it is not.

So the antisemites and the Israel-derangers, in their victory, have gone from being a minority at a mainstream and politically relevant site to the power brokers at a more fringe and less politically relevant site.

The antisemites and Israel-derangers have succeeded in obtaining a Daily Kos that is more like Mondoweiss in atmosphere and rhetoric, but in the process Daily Kos has also become more like Mondoweiss in relevance. So in a sense they now have themselves two Mondoweisses instead of one. And what was the original Mondoweiss getting them, as far as advancing their agenda in American politics and discourse? Nothing. They probably could have more actual effect on American politics and discourse if they continued to be a vocal minority at a mainstream and politically relevant site. That's why they've won the battle but in doing so may have lost the war.