The American Spectator

Kos has posted his keynote address at the first “YearlyKos” convention.

It’s one thing to talk about people-powered politics. It’s another to see it in action.

And these have been heady days for the people-powered movement.

We’re only four years old, from the early days when bloggers like Atrios and Jerome Armstrong at MyDD inspired bloggers like me and countless others to stop railing at Fox News and our so-called-“liberal” pundits, and start publishing those rants on the web.

And we’ve come a long way since then.

We were born in 2002, and sort of gingerly set out into this brave new world. None of us expected to be more than a lonely voice shouting into the wilderness. But liberal blogs grew rapidly, proving there was a desperate need for strong progressive voices in this country. That was 2002.

2003 was the year of Howard Dean, where an unknown governor from a small, remote, and usually forgotten state was propelled to front-runner status on the strength of netroots activism.

2004 … well, let’s forget 2004.

In 2005, we helped Dean become DNC chairman, and we helped Paul Hackett prove that a strong, unapologetic, progressive voice could compete in the deepest red districts.

And now it’s 2006, and it looks like we’ve arrived.

Let’s see here: no electoral victories. The chief loser still discredits the party and has it millions of dollars behind in cash on hand. And just this week, after pulling out all the stops for Francise Busby in an open seat, it lost again. Kos may have many readers, but the blog is still a “lonely voice shouting in the wilderness.”