YearlyKos From The Margins

The YearlyKos Convention brought together the Democratic presidential candidates, political activists, bloggers and members of the traditional and online media to "build a netroots nation." Is diversity valued more than in the mainstream media?

YearlyKos is a world unto itself. Gray-haired, button-covered, grassroots political activists wander the cavernous convention center as buttoned-up, khaki-wearing boy-faced bloggers congregate in off-line giddiness. Well — check that. Many of us who work in an almost entirely online world were feeling the excitement, the offline giddiness, of meeting with actual people — in a non-virtual, physical space.

The second annual YearlyKos is a "gathering of people from all walks of life that belong to the Netroots…" and started as a way for DailyKos bloggers and readers from around the world to gather together in person. This year, however, the convention brought together a much broader contingent of attendees.

While there were plenty of women in attendance and the executive director of YearlyKos is a woman — Gina Cooper — who did a fantastic organizing job, the convention is not feminist in nature and thus did not address some basic women's issues to the extent that they should have been addressed. Reproductive health and rights — whether for women or men — was but a blip on the YearlyKos screen and should have been more conspicuously represented.

The majority of speakers and panelists are of the traditional A-list male blogger variety, with a few sessions led and attended by the feminist blogger/organizers and alternative media set (Jessica Valenti from Feministing, Amanda Marcotte from Pandagon, Aimee Thorne Thomsen of the Pro-Choice Public Education Project, Tracy Van Sykes of The Media Consortium and Jessica Clark, editor-at-large of In These Times). Especially interesting was a session focused on feminist action online and how it is changing the movement; a session that included Aimee Thorne-Thomsen, also a contributor to Rewire. PEP is an organization focused on creating spaces for and elevating the voices of young women in the reproductive justice movement.

Aimee defined reproductive justice for the attendees as a combination of social justice and reproductive rights — a movement that is broader than choice, reproductive health or reproductive rights — but one that encompasses all of these issues. Her notion, that if our movement is going to be talking and engaging young women on reproductive health and rights issues we have to know what young women think about these issues, is not exactly radical in theory but in practice it hasn't been embraced as much as some of us would hope. PEP also provides leadership development — something that, according to Aimee, is sorely lacking in the reproductive justice movement. While we talk about it a lot, it is rarer to see young women actually infused with the power to lead in most reproductive justice circles.

The most interesting comment came from a young woman who questioned the use of the word "we" when talking about the reproductive justice movement. She asks, "Are ‘we' a movement, though? We all know what we're fighting against but what exactly are we fighting for?" To which Aimee responded ever so eloquently, "We're never going to all speak from the same place. But we can work together to achieve change for more than just ourselves. We can work together even if we have different priorities. We can be allies; we can each prioritize different feminist issues but it doesn't mean we aren't a movement."

The second best comment of that session? Darcy Burner, progressive Washington state senatorial candidate extraordinaire, offered to help start up a wiki for feminist projects online.

The Democratic presidential candidates all attended YearlyKos – the best part of the convention. Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama hosted individual sessions and all of the Democratic presidential candidates answered questions submitted prior from YearlyKos attendees during a lunch debate.

Hillary Clinton's session began auspiciously with a microphone that didn't work. As Clinton tapped the mic, she lost no time cracking, "It's a vast, right-wing conspiracy!"

Clinton admitted to reading blogs ("Don't tell anybody, but I actually read blogs. And sometimes I'll read something on a blog and try to figure out how to tie the idea into an argument I'm making or legislation I'm drafting…"). She even pined for the blogosphere back in 1993 when she was working on her infamous health care reform policies.

Clinton does have a universal health care plan and just voted this week to expand health care coverage for millions of low-income children. In reference to the health bill Senator Clinton said that the she, and the 67 other Senators who voted for the bill, were taking a stand against Bush since he has threatened to veto the bill. Why would our President threaten to kill legislation that would allow millions of American children access to health care?

According to the White House, the bill, a version of which has also passed in the House, "goes too far in federalizing health care." I'm sure the kids will understand when they aren't able to visit a doctor for an excruciating ear infection that it's just that their visit would send the U.S. into a socialist spin.

Despite her good vibe moment with the health care coverage for children, Clinton was taken to task for her support for her husband's welfare reform of the 1990's, and her support of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). In response to whether or not she would maintain her husband's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy for homosexual people in the military she assured the attendees that she would repeal the policy.

The Presidential Forum that included all of the Democratic Presidential Candidates was an entertaining look at all of the players including those who have been relegated somewhat to the bench. The visual divide on the stage seemed to represent the way the race has already been playing out – with Mike Gravel, Senator Chris Dodd and Governor Bill Richardson on one side of the facilitator and Senator John Edwards, Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Barack Obama and Congressman Dennis Kucinich on the other.

The forum was off to an interesting start with a question directed to Governor Richardson: "What would you like the Supreme Court to look like with a Richardson administration?" To which Richardson responded, "I believe the most important legacy of a president is who you appoint to the Supreme Court." He went on to say that he would ask any Supreme Court nominee whether or not he or she considered Roe v. Wade settled law. If they didn't, they would immediately be out. And I believe him. Richardson has been a strong supporter of reproductive health and rights and his record reflects this. Richardson also said, in reference to the recent Supreme Court decision on Partial-Birth Abortion, that the court "gave us a bad decision on choice…We must make sure that they the court in the future reflects the values of the American people."

After that, however, the forum became part pep-rally (Senator Chris Dodd seemed to surprise even himself when he was able to pump up the crowd with a particularly rousing remark and Edwards wowed the crowd with his charmingly dynamic cheerleading), part heckling session (note to Senator Clinton: it's okay if you don't believe Washington lobbyists should all be fired on your first day in office as President but don't tell a room full of one-thousand progressive political activists that Washington lobbyists have had "no real effect on the way I vote"), and part game-show as when the candidates were asked whether they would hire an official White House blogger if they were elected (for the record they all raised their hand to signal they would — though Mike Gravel answered, "You don't have to hire someone to blog, do it yourself!").

Finally, my attendance at the Barack Obama session provided me an opportunity to be Barackafied, as I call it. Barack Obama is a singularly personable presidential candidate. He was easygoing, working the crowd effortlessly with intelligent, sincere answers to the crowd's questions. Obama asked each person if they would tell them his name and where they were from before they asked their question. When a college student stood up to inquire about whether he would fund the National Science Foundation appropriately if he became president, Obama answered passionately with maybe an oh-so-subtle hint of irony, "I believe in science! I believe in things like…evidence, facts. I think this is a good starting point in thinking about what our science policy should be."

In the end, YearlyKos was like a safari trip through the jungle of the progressive, political blogosphere. There were, in my opinion, many voices left marginalized: those of many important female bloggers including women of color, blogs representing reproductive health and rights and the myriad of issues that fall under those terms.

But the presence of the Democratic presidential candidates was a beacon of light and gave me an opportunity to see the candidates as human beings — all of whom displayed humor, kindness and extraordinary intelligence, regardless of whether or not I agreed with their statements or positions. The candidates attended the convention because they all understand what we all already know — that the tremendous power the internet and its users employ over not just elections but the entire political process needs to be leveraged for an even greater democratic process.