Markos Moulitsas has pioneered a passionate, grassroots form of activism, but he isn’t upset if college students aren’t flocking to Daily Kos, the intensely popular Web site he founded several years ago for political junkies. He doesn’t even mind if students interested in politics stay within the safe confines of Facebook.
“I’m not one of those people who says that unless you’re volunteering all your free moments you’re not a good American, you’re a bad person and you’re apathetic,” he says.
Moulitsas will talk to Northwestern students Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Tech Auditorium, an event put on by the College Democrats. His Daily Kos has been a “strong, unapologetic voice” that advocates “more Democrats and better Democrats” in elected office, he says, and frequently gets more than ten million hits per month.
The site shot to prominence in 2002, when it was one of the few voices that vigorously opposed the Iraq War. Moulitsas has since published a book, written another one for this fall and penned columns for Newsweek, while politicians from Nancy Pelosi to Barack Obama in turn have contributed to his Web site.
But Moulitsas loves sites such as Facebook “because it allows people to do political activism in the environment that they’re comfortable with.” So while he thinks that it’s great that the Internet caters to every kind of interest, he says there’s no longer any “excuse to be afraid to be involved in politics, because politics will come to you.”
In a phone interview, Moulitsas talked about how the honesty of Daily Kos made it a refuge for Democrats who had few alternatives, and how the site affects politics today.
NBN: Do you think your blog engages traditionally apathetic people, such as students?
Moulitsas: I actually think that students are underrepresented on Daily Kos. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. Most students are on places like Facebook and MySpace, and they’re engaging in their sort of political engagement in sites like that. Daily Kos caters to political junkies — people who are obsessed with the numbers, the detail and the behind-the-scenes sort of things that politics is full of. But, really, it’s a bit overwhelming or boring to a general audience.
What do you hope to gain from coming to speak at Northwestern then?
There’s more than the Daily Kos. I consider myself a sort of ambassador for progressive reform and the creation of a democratic country — one that is responsive to the people, and engages in true democracy, not what we’ve had for the last several decades: Government of the rich, government of the powerful, and everybody else is sort of left on the wayside. Daily Kos is part of what I do; it’s not the only thing I do. It’s clearly what has made me prominent in the political world, but the message is one that is much broader, applies to everybody.
Why do you feel your blog has become so popular in the era of information overload of the Web?
When it started in 2002, there were very few — if any — strong, unapologetic progressive voices in the media world. In the run-up to the Iraq War, you could not find a single anti-war voice in the media landscape. If they needed somebody to oppose the war, they would bring out somebody like Janine Gerofolo, because nobody serious could possibly oppose the evil that is Saddam Hussein, who is carrying weapons of mass destruction. Daily Kos succeeded because there was a market need for that kind of strong, unapologetic voice. Daily Kos was a place where progressives like me could go and not be afraid of talking about the issues that we cared about.
People will support you if you’re not afraid to be a real Democrat. It took us supporting Howard Dean in 2004. He lost, but we saw the beginnings of a movement. We helped get him elected to chairmanship of the Democratic Party. We then booted Joe Lieberman from the Democratic primary in Connecticut, and little by little, we showed that if you stand up for what you believe in, you can win. And in 2006, we finally pulled off these huge upset victories in the Senate and the House.
How do you see the influence of the site working with this election?
Our unofficial motto at Daily Kos is “more Democrats and better Democrats.” We’re looking at House races, Senate races and even governor races. We’re gonna target Republicans, and we’re gonna try to help fund-raise and get volunteer support for Democrats running against these Republicans.
As far as I can see, Democrats are going to make big gains in the House and the Senate this year, and we’re going to be focused on the better Democrat part, because these Democrats have forgotten why they are in public service, and they become corrupt. That cost the [Republican] Party power in 2006, and that caused the Democrats to lose power in 1994. I’m not about to let my party go down that path again.
Do you have any advice for students looking to get involved with grassroots causes like this?
There’s always a million demands on students’ time. So I’m not one of those people who says that unless you’re volunteering all your free moments you’re not a good American, you’re a bad person and you’re apathetic. They have work to do, they have schoolwork to deal with, and you want to have fun sometimes, of course, so there’s social time.
I think it’s important that even if it’s a few hours overall in the entire cycle, it’s to find a local campaign that you really care about and support the issues. It’s one thing to say, “I support the environment,” and work for the Sierra Club, but the people who actually make the decisions are the elected officials. They’re the ones who decide what legislation to pass. I think it’s very important to spend time working on a campaign, helping out. I know where you guys are, you have Dan Seals’s race against Mark Kirk — hugely important race. Mark Kirk is a Republican incumbent, huge supporter of the war in Iraq. And we have Dan Seals, who wants to get out of Iraq. That alone is enough for me. So even if it’s one weekend or one day, or just a little bit of time, you can do that, and I think that it’s very important.
The reason it’s important is because students are not taken seriously by the political process. Two types of people are taken seriously: Those who have a lot of money, and those that provide the boots on the ground. Students obviously aren’t gonna have the money, so the way to let yourself be known and seen and heard and force the political establishment to pay attention to you is to actually be engaged directly in how these guys get elected. And then your concerns — whether it’s the war in Iraq, or student loans, or whatever it is — are going to get more attention because, at the end of the day, it’s those who do the work that reap rewards. Young people haven’t been good at that, traditionally. I think they’re getting a lot better this year, and I hope that that sentiment carries on and grows beyond the primary process into the general election.
Journalism students here are being told that they need to adapt to the changing media landscape. What can they learn from sites like yours?
There’s always a medium out there that caters to any individual’s interests. I’m a big fan of Facebook because it allows people to do political activism in the environment that they’re comfortable with. I don’t expect everybody to come to Daily Kos and feel comfortable. They won’t. But there’s a lot of places out there that do provide for a certain comfort level, whether it’s somebody who’s really good at video on YouTube or some funny people making great comedy clips.
The idea is that in these worlds where media penetrates everything and politics penetrates all these different media outlets, there’s just no excuse to be afraid to be involved in politics, because politics will come to you. And that’s the key. It’s so much easier to be politically engaged now than it was fifteen years ago. You had the newspapers, you had the television stations, and that was it. There was no access for people. Now, wherever you want to hang out, politics will come to you. Basically what younger people have to do is just allow it to come in, just accept it.
You said that Daily Kos is brash and — is it fair to say that some would call this divisive? There’s a recent article that talks about John “Let’s Bomb Iran” McCain. What do you think about that?
Any media outlet that takes a position on anything is “divisive.” If you want to talk about what the best music is, people are going to have strong opinions, and that’s “divisive.” People are allowed to have strong opinions, and this notion that it’s bad for people to disagree is frankly undemocratic. Frankly, I think it makes debates more interesting when my friends and I disagree. Sports: That’s divisive, because you have one half rooting for one team, and the other half rooting for the other team. This notion that divisiveness is bad is patently absurd. We went to Iraq because people were afraid to speak out against it.
I’ve got to ask: What do you think will be the next major surprise on the campaign trail?
Reality is better than anything I’ve ever come up with. I think Obama’s going to win, the question is: How long is it going to take Hillary Clinton to realize it? To me, the big shock would be for her to drop out right after Pennsylvania, but I don’t see that happening. I think we’re going to see Obama win by eventually garnering superdelegates in June, and then we’re going to have a really bloody, ugly, nasty, rigorous general election fight this November.