"Kos" Liberals Vs. Old Time Radicals

The "Yearly Kos" confab is in the blogosphere news currently. For those who don't follow the "liberal blogosphere" that closely, the "Daily Kos" is a liberal blog that has garnered a lot of influence in Democratic Party circles. Howard Dean, the Chairman of the Democratic Party, just gave the keynote address at the Yearly Kos convention, and there has been a lot of buzz about how well Hillary Clinton will do in a presidential candidates debate or forum in front of an audience composed of the liberal Daily Kos bloggers. Last year she was booed when she stated her opposition to a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. Since then she has deftly modified (or blurred) her position on the war and now she is calling for an immediate partial troop withdrawal. She still has not apologized for her vote authorizing the war. It will be interesting to see how she does today at the debate.

Why is today's "Left" less radicalized than the Left of the 1960s? Hendrik Hertzberg of The New Yorker sees it this way:

"I think the difference between today’s left and yesterday’s is partly
explained by the difference between the wars that have energized them. Vietnam
was, as Bob Dole might say, a “Democrat war.” You couldn't’t protest it just by
putting your energies into electing Democrats, and of course you couldn't’t do it
by trying to elect Republicans, who liked the war even more. You had to go to
the left of the Dems, and if you hadn’t happened to have already acquired a
moral/political compass, you might keep going till you ended up at the feet of
Chairman Mao. This war is an all-Republican affair. And this generation, thank
God, is perfectly content to stick with (Democratic Party) Chairman
Howard."

Well, I'm definitely NOT ready to "Thank God" that today's generation is content to stick with the Democratic Party. I see that 16 Democratic senators just joined the Republicans in the senate in passing a domestic spying bill that meets Bush's requirements. That's another Democratic Party sellout, pure and simple. The usual Democratic conservatives...Ben Nelson, etc. and the unreliables, like Diane Feinstein, and, of course, faux Democrat Joe Lieberman voted with the Republicans. Yes, the more liberal Democrats voted against the bill, but there is no Democratic Party discipline holding the party together in opposition to King George/Rove. Give me some of that old time political radicalism. I can't take any more of the Democrats.

Jim