When George W. Bush was in the White House, one of the leading anti-war voices in the nation was the ultra-liberal website Daily Kos.
Now that Barack Obama is President, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are mysteriously no longer of such great concern to the Netroots.
I guess the anti-war movement was much more about getting Bush out of office than getting our troops out of harm's way.
Such was reported by the Washington Examiner's Byron York Tuesday (h/t Paul Chesser):
No group was more angrily opposed to the war in Iraq than the netroots activists clustered around the left-wing Web site DailyKos. It's an influential site, one of the biggest on the Web, and in the Bush years many of its devotees took an active role in raising money and campaigning for anti-war candidates.In 2006, DailyKos held its first annual convention, called YearlyKos, in Las Vegas. Amid the slightly discordant surroundings of the Riviera Hotel casino, the webby activists spent hours discussing and planning strategies not only to defeat Republicans but also to pressure Democrats to oppose the war more forcefully. The gathering attracted lots of mainstream press attention; Internet activism was the hot new thing.
What a difference an "O" makes:
Fast forward to last weekend, when YearlyKos, renamed Netroots Nation, held its convention in Pittsburgh. The meeting didn't draw much coverage, but the views of those who attended are still, as they were in 2006, a pretty good snapshot of the left wing of the Democratic party.
The news that emerged is that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have virtually fallen off the liberal radar screen. Kossacks (as fans of DailyKos like to call themselves) who were consumed by the Iraq war when George W. Bush was president are now, with Barack Obama in the White House, not so consumed, either with Iraq or with Obama's escalation of the conflict in Afghanistan. In fact, they barely seem to care.
Just watch how the sentiment changes now that a Democrat is in the White House:
As part of a straw poll done at the convention, the Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg presented participants with a list of policy priorities like health care and the environment. He asked people to list the two priorities they believed "progressive activists should be focusing their attention and efforts on the most." The winner, by far, was "passing comprehensive health care reform." In second place was enacting "green energy policies that address environmental concerns."
And what about "working to end our military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan"? It was way down the list, in eighth place.
Perhaps more tellingly, Greenberg asked activists to name the issue that "you, personally, spend the most time advancing currently." The winner, again, was health care reform. Next came "working to elect progressive candidates in the 2010 elections." Then came a bunch of other issues. At the very bottom -- last place, named by just one percent of participants -- came working to end U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
How convenient.
As York pointed out, it seems the anti-war sentiment of these folks was far more about opposing George W. Bush than what was happening in Iraq.
Of course, most rational people knew it all along.
—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters. Follow him at Facebook and Twitter.




















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Shocked
August 18, 2009 - 09:15 ET by onewiseguyGee, I'm shocked, really....
Kossacks?! Lemmings is
August 18, 2009 - 09:17 ET by HockeyKidKossacks?! Lemmings is more accurate.
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
WHAT?
August 18, 2009 - 10:22 ET by Willis_Leon_JohnsonYou got a problem with Lemmings that would bring forth such animosity as to compare the two?
http://gjresult.com
Add to that, homelessness,
August 18, 2009 - 09:18 ET by winston smithAdd to that, homelessness, hunger, government intrusion, crime, that all seem to miraculously disappear when a Democrat president takes office.
tired of liberal
August 18, 2009 - 10:50 ET by stunnedtired of liberal lies
Bingo!! The sun shines brighter, the birds sing sweeter, the air is purer and the MSM slips into a coma.
And I still haven't see or heard about any more...
August 18, 2009 - 09:25 ET by Prester John...."grim milestones" in Iraq or particularly Afghanistan.
I guess if the MSM doesn't report it, it never happened, right?
Note that Cindy Sheehan is at least consistent--she'll be protesting BHO when he is in MA.
"The Truth is Treason in the Empire of Lies"
www.campaignforliberty.com
Right, John,
August 18, 2009 - 09:32 ET by UpNorthCindy is consistently crazy. Has been, is and will be forever, crazy. I'm not sure what her cause is these days, maybe it's sanctuary for UFO's, or just plain, old wackiness.
Meanwhile, as everyone noted, the Kommunists at Kos have decided we're no longer at war, so why worry?
I just find it truly
August 19, 2009 - 08:25 ET by Doc_NavyI just find it truly telling that the most consistent and politically stable liberal proponent out there, is Fu**ing Cindy Sheehan!!
Seriously, when an attention grabbing, fame seeking, money grubbing, two-bit, no account, take-advantage-of-my-dead-son's-military-benefits POS like Sheehan is representative of your movement...Baby, you're in trouble!
Doc
War?? What war???
August 18, 2009 - 09:24 ET by motherbeltTheir messiah said he was going to end the war, so in their minds, it's over.
Byron York
August 18, 2009 - 09:37 ET by KC MulvilleYork is a must read. Great reporter.
You've heard of the old phrase, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing, but expecting a different result." York has given us the liberal corollary: "Insanity also happens when you have the same problem, yet not caring about it when a liberal's responsible." They don't call them nutroots for nuthin', ya know.
It's not just the DAILY
August 18, 2009 - 10:11 ET by mattmIt's not just the DAILY KOOKS & the NUT-BOOTS, you also don't see much war coverage in the media, and you certainly don't see Democrats advocating reinstating the Draft.... They were so adamant about that when Bush was president, where are they now?
Phonies!
the death count
August 18, 2009 - 11:40 ET by katainkentI was standing at the paper rack of my local coffee shop and there was a very positive story about the war in Afghanistan on the cover of both papers in the rack - the Seattle Times and the NYT. I noticed immediately what was missing. Death counts. Deaths of soldiers. Deaths of civilians. It has been a huge difference.
___________________________________________
"The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax" - HR 3200 (Health Care Bill) Pg. 203. Ln 14 & 15
tired of liberal lies "it
August 18, 2009 - 10:49 ET by stunnedtired of liberal lies
"it seems the anti-war sentiment of these folks was far more about opposing George W. Bush than what was happening in Iraq."
duh!!!!
Not covering for Kos by any
August 18, 2009 - 11:22 ET by BKeyserNot covering for Kos by any means, but the critical difference in their minds is that we're all but finished in Iraq (so who cares anymore?) and as the Prez said the other day, Afghanistan is not a "war of choice"- again, in their minds. For the most part their wasn't a lot of opposition to the initial involvement in Afghanistan, and the Kosaks and others decided that the war against terror limited the enemy to Al Qaeda. The fact that we've been fighting Al Qaeda for nearly 8 years now, in multiple theaters, is of minimal import to them; and the fact that we're fighting mostly Taliban now in Afghanistan is just an inconvenient detail they chose not to address.
Though, as we all know, the true partisan, from either side of the aisle, is usually okay with anything their party does.
And that begs the question...
August 18, 2009 - 11:52 ET by Willis_Leon_JohnsonWhat caused the fall out between kos and their allies al-qeada?
They both have the same objective.
http://gjresult.com
Markos Moulistas
August 18, 2009 - 11:50 ET by AgentAmerican...makes my blood boil looking at his scrawy mug. There is nothing good about what this pervert is doing.
I would go to the Daily Kos sewer and mix it up with them, but then I would have to have my Dell Inspiron washed out with lye soap.
I pray that when the conservative revolt washes these roaches out of power, that we go on a counter-pogrom. Rush is right; payback will be hell. Appoint a real crime-fighting AG to go after George Soros. The left must be destroyed.
2010: A GOP Hill
August 18, 2009 - 13:35 ET by jessieHJust proves they don't care about our country, just there own agenda. Makes me sick to my stomach.
I don't think the insane Leftists have ever genuinely cared...
August 18, 2009 - 13:55 ET by PrairieSkyabout the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, or the war on terror in general. Despite all their non-stop, overheated rhetoric and bloviating, these idiots haven't cared a fig for why we're fighting this war on terror, nor have they really cared about the military members fighting the war...The Left, in general, despises the military, and always has.
What the Left has cared about, is that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the war on terror have been used as a club to bludgeon President Bush for 8 years, and they are still doing it. Now that their boy Obama is president, the Leftist establishment couldn't give a rat's a$$ about Iraq and Afghanistan, or how Obama handles them (or not). They simply don't care...For the Left, they are now non-issues, now that Bush is out of office.
"The problem is not that people are taxed too little...the problem is that government spends too much." ~President Ronald Reagan
I agree with AgentAmerica
August 18, 2009 - 17:52 ET by RR GOPI agree with AgentAmerican above-we are targets. Don't forget it.
One of the 34% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 86% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.
End-around-games in Iraq and Afghanistan
August 18, 2009 - 20:36 ET by metaphorsbwithuI don't hear anyone demanding to know what the exit strategy is in Afghanistan either.
metaphorsbwithu
I have a standard phrase for
September 10, 2009 - 17:39 ET by jkwtradingI have a standard phrase for the lefts I know..the next war might be your own..are you ready? Your opponet is getting closer day by day.