If you’re not familiar with the website The Daily Kos and the community of diarists and commenters there, known collectively as “Kossacks,” this may all be a little too inside baseball for you. But the story of RainbowGirl – her meteoric rise to the top of the Recommended Diaries List on the strength of her compelling diaries, which so perfectly encapsulated the views of a large portion of that community, while simultaneously arousing the ire and suspicion of others; and her dramatic expulsion less than one month after she arrived — explains a lot about the rifts among the liberal-progressive-left in the age of Obama, and why many have reduced or completely ended their relationship with DailyKos.
My own role in that saga was tiny, insignificant even. And yet, of all the people in the world she could have chosen, a person central to the tale of RainbowGirl mysteriously contacted me. And now I have decided to share my own interaction with her, so that you, dear readers, can make of it what you will.
‘Twas the night before Christmas…
The morning of December 24, 2010 began with the publication of the latest DailyKos diary by Kossack RainbowGirl. This would be her fifth contribution as a diarist. She had created her account on December 6th, and after the seven-day waiting period for new users, her first diary went up on December 14th; and it caused a sensation. It attracted hundreds of comments and vaulted onto the Recommended Diaries List, the highest honor available to community-generated content, and a feat rarely achieved by first-time diarists. But the story was compelling and profound, and it spoke directly to the heart of a significant segment of the DailyKos community.
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Sometimes you’ve got to “get down in the mud with the fucking elephants.”
