Yearly Kos

JACK
I am very proud of the email I just received from my dear friend and protégé, Joel Silberman. Joel has become very active in the Progressive movement, while he maintains a level look at every side of the many problems that we face today. All of us have heard so much about, what I will name for the first time, the Fifth Estate people from all walks of life, who have become bloggers. In effect, each one of them is publishing his own newspaper, and each one determines his or her own editorial policy. One of the largest of these sites is dailykos.com, and they are the ones that put together the Yearly Kos Convention. One of the most important elements of the convention is a Democratic Presidential Debate. It is amazing that in such a short period of time they have gained enough prestige to attract all of the democratic presidential candidates, with the exception of Joe Biden. A great deal of the power stems from the fact that dailykos.com has 500,000 unique visitors to that site every day. All of the candidates now, Democrat and Republican, have their own websites. This is a truly an exciting new phenomenon that is having a dramatic effect on our thought processes. There are great controversies being discussed, and I do believe if our founding fathers were to see them, they would be applauding. To me, this is indeed the voice of the people, without censorship of any kind. Hillary, I thought it would be a great idea to share this email to us from Joel Silberman.

HILLARY
I think its a great idea to give people an insight into this "controversial" convention, and Im happy to include Joels email on our site.

Dear Jack and Hillary,

I have just left the 2nd Annual Yearly Kos Convention. As of last night the name was changed to Netroots Nation. And I must say it is really apt.

Last year there were about 1000 attendees with 7 sponsors. This year there were just over 1500 attendees and 26 sponsors. And the image that we see portrayed on Fox News of the people who attend this conference could not be more false. These people are from mainstream America. The average age is 45. Theyare mostly college graduates and a majority of them have at least one post graduate degree. They are predominantly white which reflects the digital divide that is still present in the country. There were 60% men 40% women. This is my very unscientific survey.

Markos said to the press at his press conference. If one of the definitions of democracy is ordinary citizens speaking to each other about how their government should run, then Yearly Kos is democracy in action and anyone that hates Yearly Kos hates democracy. I’m proud to have had a part in crafting that and many other messages delivered at the convention. It was humbling to be among so many articulate and informed people. If this is the face of America, I have great hope for our country today.

Probably the highest point of the convention for me was during the presidential forum. With the exception of Senator Biden all the Democratic candidates came to talk to us. They were remarkably candid. And it made me proud to be a Democrat looking at the brilliant and authentic candidates from which we would chose our President. And the questions they were asked were intelligent and tough. I had the opportunity to prepare the moderators and acted as the stage director for the event. As I said, humbling.

If you go to DailyKos today you can see and hear the keynote speech Markos delivered to the convention last night. We worked very hard on it and I’m proud of both the content and the delivery. But mostly I’m thrilled to know that the conversation we are having every day online, once thought to be out of touch, in now THE national conversation.

And Jack, let me say once again, none of this would have happened to me without the careful guidance and support you have so generously given to me. You have truly changed the way I think in the most subtle and profound way that I could never have imagined. I am proud to say that this weekend I had the opportunity to pass it on.

I’ll send links to the rest of the stuff over the next few days. You, of course, can go to YouTube and search for all the speeches.

Much love,
Joel

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