On March 1st, 2006, just over 10 years ago, Markos and Jerome published their book “Crashing the Gate”. It was a blue print for taking on entrenched and antiquated Democratic establishment via the collective power, reach, and energy of a new generation of online activists, eventually coined the “Netroots” by Jerome himself. Read the synopsis from Amazon:

Crashing the Gate is a shot across the bow at the political establishment in Washington, DC and a call to re-democratize politics in America. This book lays bare, with passion and precision, how ineffective, incompetent, and antiquated the Democratic Party establishment has become, and how it has failed to adapt and respond to new realities and challenges. The authors save their sharpest knives to go for the jugular in their critique of Republican ideologues who are now running--and ruining--our country. Written by two of the most popular political bloggers in America, the book hails the new movement--of the netroots, the grassroots, the unorthodox labor unions, the maverick big donors--that is the antidote to old-school politics as usual. Fueled by advances in technology and a hunger for a more authentic and populist democracy, this broad-based movement is changing the way political campaigns are waged and managed. A must-read book for anyone with an interest in the future of American democracy.

In Markos’ recent diary regarding a March 15th transition to the General Election — essentially a deadline for Bernie Sanders to be more competitive — many members enumerated their disappointment lamenting what the site had become. Here is one such comment tree.

That comment inspired me to re-read the synopsis of “Crashing the Gate” that I added above, and I think it clarifies why people assume this site has “sold out” or “deviated” from its roots.

Objectively, Sanders is the most viable progressive candidate for President that has run for the Democratic Party nomination since this site was founded. Yes, more progressive than Howard Dean, no doubt. You think Markos and Daily Kos, LLC (as a political forum and entity) would jump at the chance to endorse a candidate like Bernie, given Daily Kos’ strong position in the progressive online space.

However, I don’t think the mission of Daily Kos was ever to get candidates like Bernie Sanders elected (at least as primary goal and outcome).

The mission of Daily Kos was to coalesce the emerging (and now fully emerged) Internet grassroots — aka “Netroots” — to wield their collective power against traditional media and the Democratic establishment (it’s listed right in the synopsis above). So maybe “We The People” get to move first instead of second in the game of political chess, but the pieces are all the same. Somewhat an advantage, but the game remains the same. Of all the Orange to Blue candidates that Daily Kos has endorsed over the past decade, how many actually spoke about the things Bernie speaks about, at least on income inequality and expanding government to work for the people? Are there even five?

Bernie is all about developing a new game.

But back to the main topic of discussion.

Even if Daily Kos was never founded specifically to support candidates like Bernie, the Netroots was supposed to wrest away power in the Democratic Party from the grasp of the elite, and it was relatively effective early on. Daily Kos and other early Netroots websites served as headquarters for progressive activism. They served as testing centers for the latest wave in political support — online fundraising and activism. They even gained a small footprint in the infant social media landscape that emerged in the mid-2000s.

But it’s 10 years later, and online fundraising isn’t a novel game changer anymore, it’s a requirement for any successful campaign. Social media has exploded into a multi-hundred billion dollar industry and has vastly outpaced Netroots growth (Markos has said as much, the stories with most traffic historically were viral shares on social media). And, perhaps most relevant, for the last 8 years our movement has not had a common opponent to align ourselves against. Sure, Republicans are still plenty in power throughout America, but it has not been as visceral as the Bush Administration, the single entity that bound our movement together.

It’s this last point that, in my view, reveals the true mission of the Netroots and Daily Kos that was listed for years in plain view, but obscured by the enthusiasm and dreams of strident progressives hoping to develop that new game. It’s not surprising that a progressive platform would grow when its founding and early years coincided with one of the most egregious conservative administrations in the history of modern America. Everyone is eager to elect progressives when your party is trying to regain power.

However, it’s far more revealing to see the direction progressive platforms go when your party is the one in power. Early on we pushed and pushed President Obama to enact progressive laws. Progressives were united in at least having a public option in the ACA, and many were calling for full single payer. The movement sustained well into President Obama’s time in office, and that was relieving.

But something changed over the last year. I can’t put a finger on it exactly, but I think it started when Markos declared his full support for Hillary Clinton early on in 2015. Considering that her Democratic opponent was finally a candidate that could proudly declare support for fully progressive policies, bring them to the mainstream, and not be hooked away from the stage, this was very disappointing for strident progressives. What we’ve seen, particularly this 2016 primary season, is that Markos is done Crashing the Gate.

The optics of the immediately above paragraph cannot be more striking. The activist who made it his mission to take on entrenched Democratic Party establishment 10 years ago is now aligning himself with the Democratic candidate that most clearly exemplifies that establishment. Again, even if Daily Kos and the Netroots were not created to specifically elect candidates like Bernie — and were instead about broadening and increasing the power of the Democratic base — there isn’t a candidate that aligns with “Crashing the Gate’s” synopsis better than Bernie. Instead of continuing to empower “We The People”, the Netroots has plateaued into merely another division of the entrenched politicians that Markos sought to (at least originally) take on.

Let me be clear — there are a lot of things I like about Hillary Clinton, even though I’m currently supporting Bernie Sanders. I will vote for her if she wins the nomination. This diary goes beyond Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. It is about how the Netroots has lost its effectiveness in addressing its goals. This is not about growth in site traffic, which has been booming, it’s about staying consistent as activists.

If you focus on the “Net” part of Netroots, then perhaps this plateauing was inevitable. Technology has rapidly advanced over the past decade, leveling the playing field for all political operations, including ones we aligned against. While the technology may have equalized, we can still wield the power of the “roots” part of Netroots; our broad and energetic consortium of activists still fighting for progressive change.

But only if people are still willing to lead the way over those gates.

Update — adding in part of a comment I made below that is a good TL;DR for this diary.