Kossack hordes set to descend on Las Vegas

Like most people, or perhaps more than most people, the Gleaner doesn't know quite what to make of this whole blogosphere thingy. We're pretty sure we're not part of any "netroots," mostly because we're surly and difficult and, you know, not really joiners. You might say we're more of a Greek chorus -- or, if you prefer, the cranky nutjob uncle safely stashed away in an apartment across town.

Anyway, the 1,000, or maybe even 1,500, people who do know what to make of this whole blogosphere thingy, or are at least intensely interested in trying to know, and who will come to Las Vegas June 8-11 for the YearlyKos convention have attracted a very impressive line-up of Democratic politicians, progressive activists, authors and such. In addition so to Senate Democratic Leader and fight fan Harry Reid (well, it's his state), politicians on the YearlyKos schedule include, but are not limited to, Howard Dean, Wesley Clark, Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi, Tom Vilsack and Mark Warner.

Toss in scores of other folks, from Tom Mattzie of MoveOn.org to framing guru George Lakoff (the would-be anti-Luntz) to Michael Schiavo hosting a panel on privacy -- and of course Markos and many of the rest of the world's most successful liberal bloggers -- and, well, if a more flavorful cavalcade of moonbats and moonbat sympathizers has ever gathered in Las Vegas at one time, we're damned if we know when.

As for the politicians, the rationale behind their attendance was summed up nicely by Matt Bai in last week's New York Times Magazine:

If you want to win over the African-American vote, for instance, you go speak to the N.A.A.C.P. If you want the support of labor, you get on the phone to the A.F.L.-C.I.O. But who can deliver virtual voting blocs? Who speaks for pseudonymous bloggers? For the politicians, YearlyKos would seem to put online activism into a familiar rubric. Here, at last, is the impersonal ballroom with garish lighting and folding round tables, the throng of attendees whose hands can be shaken and shoulders gripped. Here is the Netroots as just another influential lobby to be wooed and won over, like the steelworkers or the Sierra Club.

This is, at best, an imperfect view of online activists, many of whom disdain traditional interest groups and can't seem to agree on what to call themselves, let alone on any common agenda. Even so, the politicians may understand the real significance of this first blogger convention of its kind better than some of the bloggers themselves, who imagine that cyberpolitics is no less than a reinvention of the public square, the harbinger of a radically different era in which politicians will connect to their constituents electronically and voters will organize in virtual communities. Politicians know that politics is, by its nature, a tactile business.

Gina Cooper (who has been very nice to the Gleaner whether we deserved it or not) and other folks who have helped put YearlyKos together should be justifiably proud -- no matter how many millions of hits Kos gets every day, presidential wannabes like Vilsack and Warner wouldn't be showing up at the Riviera next week if not for all the effort that has gone toward making the convention a Pretty Big Deal. But the politicians' delight at discovering the "tactile" manifestation of the netroots notwithstanding, the convention, s'pose, is really all about, and for, the Kossacks and their ilk. YearlyKos is a chance to actually meet in the meat world, to put faces to names (or pseudonyms), to build the network, plot, schmooze, strategize and generally figure out how to work together to make the world, you know, a better place. Or at least help Democrats win an election or two.

We plan to drop by, maybe learn something if we're not careful, and of course probably have a little fun at the Kossacks' expense -- the spectacle of progressives fawning over Harry Reid never fails to amuse. Mostly, we hope all the YearlyKos attendees have a great and productive time and the convention is a big fat success, because you don't have to be a committed and dedicated member of the netroots community to be glad it's out there.

Comments

[Diogenes]

A word of caution about "moonbats". To avoid being infected with moonbat fever, one should bathe in a bath of 50,000 cloves of garlic before attending any moonbat function after sundown. Moonbat fever has been known to persist until a presidential election. There is no known treatment once infected.

[Myrna the Minx]

If you catch Warner, tell us what you think. He was an excellent governor in my former state of Virginia. I'd be interested to hear about what kind of reception he gets.

[Not Bob]

So is Gleaner getting press credentials to cover it? OR paying the $150 cover charge?

And didn't this guy just write a book about party-crashing?

[gleaner]

Good point, as usual, Not Bob. Anyway, I played the hey-you're-in-my-town card and got press credentials, or so I've been told in an e-mail. My view of press credentials is you get access, but it's really not ethical to eat the food. Or something like that.

[siun]

and we fell for that local line ... sheesh!

legitimately credentialed is mr. gleaner - and we'll even let him have some media room snacks ... but only if he shares the snark!

... media.yearlykos

[Knox]

This:

the spectacle of progressives fawning over Harry Reid never fails to amuse

is the funniest line in the post and I wonder if the leading Kossacks will get it.