The essence of leadership is not found when things are going well. It’s when things are going badly that you learn who the great leaders are.
Markos Moulitsas is a great leader.
While he remains reluctant to be more than a sysadmin for the Democratic Netroots community, he is, in fact, much more.
He proved it today by saying what needed to be said to Democrats, what no leader has said this year, not John Edwards or Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or Howard Dean.
I’ve got to say, of all the things that get me down about this job,
there’s nothing worse than the people who want to quit the game and
take their ball home every time we face a setback. It’s as if every
word I’ve ever written about this being a long-term battle means zero.
As if it’s instant gratification or nothing.
This is tough love. Kos then goes on to talk about how long it took
conservatives to reach this level of dominance, and how it will take
the Netroots just as long, whether they like it or not.
Buck up. We still haven’t completely lost this Iraq supplemental
battle. And if we do, instead of crying and taking your ball home,
resolve to fight even harder. We owe it to our troops in Iraq, to our
families, to our neighbors, to ourselves.
I can’t tell you how important this kind of talk is, at a time like this. People who believed this Congress could end the War in Iraq are disappointed and angry right now, because the fact is they don’t have the votes. Joe Lieberman gives Republicans an effective 50-50 split in the Senate, and there are several Senate Democrats who fear being called "weak" more than they fear the deaths of our boys and girls, the destruction of our Army, or the damage to our real national security. There are also a host of DLC and Blue Dog Democrats in the House, who feel the same way.
A real movement doesn’t get down when things get tough. It only works harder.
Who was Kos in 1967? Let me know what you think, and I’ll tell you what I think .
