Markos Moulitsas

Daily Kos Writer: Cruz Suited to Lead ‘Christian Caliphate’ Which Would Regard Second Amendment As ‘Holy’
By Tom Johnson | December 7, 2015 | 9:34 PM EST

In 2010, Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas published his book American Taliban, which detailed his belief that “fundamentalist Muslims [are] basically hard-right Christians…American [religious conservatives] may be more constrained by American society and laws than their Middle Eastern counterparts, but…their goals are the same.” This past weekend, one current and one former Daily Kos writer carried on the tradition of lumping the two groups.

Daily Kos’s Susan Grigsby opined, “It is very difficult to find much space between the coming Christian caliphate, which reveres the Second Amendment as a holy text, and the one set up by [ISIS] in Syria and Iraq.” Washington Monthly blogger David Atkins, a frequent Daily Kos contributor until about a year ago, argued that “to most rational people there is very little dividing line between the agendas of conservative Muslim extremists and conservative Christian ones. Both groups are strongly in favor of weaponizing the public, both are devoted to the imposition of theocracy, and both are opposed to expanded rights for women and those of alternate sexual orientations."

Kos: Paris Attacks Give Conservatives ‘An Excuse to Wield Their Favorite Tool -- Fear!’
By Tom Johnson | November 16, 2015 | 5:52 PM EST

Many on the left have accused conservatives of exploiting the Paris terrorist attacks for political gain. On Monday, Daily Kos founder and publisher Markos Moulitsas jumped on the pile, alleging that the right’s main reaction to the attacks was not sadness or outrage, but “excitement” over the prospect of stirring up Islamophobia -- perhaps to the point of getting the Middle East war that they supposedly want so much.

“Finally! An excuse to wield their favorite tool—fear!” wrote Kos. “Because if there’s one sentiment that defines conservative ideology, it’s fear. Fear of the blacks, the communists, the immigrants, the liberal college professors, the Mexican rapist/drug dealers, the sleeper cells hiding amidst Syrian refugees…This is a movement that can’t speak to people’s economic plight, but it sure can rail about the monsters under the bed!”

Kos: GOP ‘Crazies’ Like Trump Because He Reflects Their ‘Bigotries’ and ‘Tell[s] the Weenies to F**k Off’
By Tom Johnson | September 6, 2015 | 2:40 PM EDT

Does Donald Trump’s popularity among Republicans indicate that a big part of the GOP base is more authoritarian than it is conservative? Yes, suggested Daily Kos founder and publisher Markos Moulitsas in a Friday post.

“The crazies don't really care about any conservative platform, they just want someone to reflect their own bigotries and xenophobia, all the while telling the weenies to fuck off,” wrote Kos. “They'd be just as excited if it was Hulk Hogan playing the role.” He remarked that Trump has a flair for “the kind of braggadocio that appeals to the conservative lizard brain” and concluded, “Remember how hot Vladmir Putin made conservatives? Donald Trump is the GOP's homegrown Vladimir Putin.”

Kos: Hillary’s Attitude Toward Mainstream Media Should Be ‘F**k Them. They Haven't Earned Any Respect’
By Tom Johnson | May 21, 2015 | 9:35 PM EDT

When it comes to taking questions from representatives of the legacy media, Hillary Clinton has been making herself rather scarce, and Daily Kos founder and publisher Markos Moulitsas thinks that’s just peachy.

“The day when the political media was instrumental in getting a candidate's message out is over,” wrote Kos in a Thursday post. “Candidates now have myriad vehicles to communicate their message straight to the voters without having it wrung through the old media's filter…So yes, if you're Hillary Clinton, you damn right ignore the dinosaur press corps. Fuck them.”

Kos: Success of Apple ‘Single-Handedly Lays Waste to Conservative Ideology’
By Tom Johnson | April 30, 2015 | 6:06 PM EDT

Apple Inc. is not merely a tech company; it’s also a destroyer of right-wing doctrine. That was the main argument of a Tuesday blog post by Daily Kos founder and publisher Markos Moulitsas.

Kos asserted that the huge success of the California-based Apple refutes the “conservatives [who] bray incessantly about the Golden State's ‘high taxes and burdensome regulations.’” He also lauded the company for supporting gay rights (“unlike conservative orthodoxy, tolerance and respect for people's private life are good for business”) and “tak[ing] global climate change seriously.”

Kos: Obama’s Worst Mistake Was ‘Believing His Campaign Bullsh*t’ About Working With Republicans
By Tom Johnson | January 21, 2015 | 12:07 PM EST

The Daily Kos founder and publisher argues that the recent jump in Obama’s approval rating shows that Obama should have governed as a staunch liberal “from Day One, instead of wasting years of his life trying to make nice with an intractable and hostile Republican Party…Republicans are on a holy war to destroy everything that is good and noble about government. They have no interest in peace.”

Kos: ‘Only Crusty, Bitter, Old…Cuban-Americans Still Support’ U.S. Embargo
By Tom Johnson | December 18, 2014 | 9:51 PM EST

Daily Kos founder and publisher Markos Moulitsas is exultant that we are “finally moving on” from the embargo “despite the wailing and teeth gnashing of the [Marco] Rubios and [Bob] Menendezes of the world, and the new generation of Cuban Americans is leading the way.”

Kos: Vote-Suppression Key for Republicans, Since They’ve ‘Lost the American People’
By Tom Johnson | September 16, 2014 | 10:25 PM EDT

Daily Kos boss Markos Moulitsas says Republicans understand that they’re “a minority, and a shrinking one,” and that therefore reducing Democratic turnout is crucial to future GOP electoral success.

Daily Kos: ‘Sane’ GOPers Should Stand Up to the Tea Party By Voting Against ‘Radical’ Dave Brat
By Tom Johnson | June 17, 2014 | 2:14 PM EDT

In a 2008 column for The Hill, Daily Kos boss Markos Moulitsas warned Democrats not to listen to Republican "concern trolls," a term for those on one side of the political fence who seek to undermine the other side by offering it seemingly good (but actually bad) counsel. "Democrats," wrote Moulitsas, "understand that they're not in the business of giving their opponents advice."

Nonetheless, a Daily Kos writer stepped up to the concern-troll plate this past Sunday when Ian Reifowitz called on non-Tea Party GOPers in Virginia’s 7th congressional district to vote for Democratic nominee Jack Trammell in order to “punish Republicans who are too extreme,” including nominee Dave Brat. “If there isn't a civil war within the Republican Party yet, there sure ought to be,” opined Reifowitz, “and the 7th District is where sane Republicans need to make a stand.”

Kos: Critics of Bergdahl Swap Are 'A**holes' and 'Chickenhawks'
By Tom Johnson | June 4, 2014 | 10:56 PM EDT

Two of the leading lights of the lefty blogosphere weighed in Tuesday on the Bowe Bergdahl matter. Daily Kos founder and publisher Markos Moulitsas, who served a three-year stint in the Army just after graduating from high school, blasted the anti-Bergdahl rhetoric of bloodyhanded neoconservative "chickenhawks" who aren't ashamed to opine despite being "wrong about everything in the last decade."

Kos claimed that since the Afghan war "is now over," the five Taliban exchanged for Bergdahl had to be released anyway "under international law." From Moulitsas's post (emphasis added):

David Corn: 'For Many Conservatives,' Benghazi Like a 'Candy Store,' But 'The Bins Are Empty'
By Tom Johnson | May 4, 2014 | 2:23 PM EDT

This past week was the biggest in a long time for Benghazi news. How did some of the leading lights of the lefty blogosphere handle the Ben Rhodes e-mail and related topics? We report; you decide.

1. David Corn of Mother Jones, best known for bringing to light the Mitt Romney 47-percent tape, wrote on Friday that the Rhodes e-mail is "pretty standard stuff" and that "all the fuss about [it]...is smoke, not fire." Corn admits that the White House "certainly has bungled part of its Benghazi reaction" but that the Republicans' case nonetheless "should have been...closed, a long time back."

Kos: Conservatives Are Having a 'Tantrum' Because the Left Has 'Won the Battle of Ideas'
By Tom Johnson | April 15, 2014 | 6:11 AM EDT

Daily Kos boss Markos Moulitsas thinks that conservatives typically come off as angry and resentful, and in a Monday post he argued that's because culturally, economically, and politically, the world "has left them behind...[T]hey've created an entire alternate media world in which to cocoon themselves. But they know they've lost."
 
Kos warned liberals not to celebrate just yet: "[P]ower isn't just about ideas. It's about wrestling the institutional levers of government from the retrogrades. Those entrenched economic and conservative interests wield power via the Supreme Court, through gross gerrymandering, through voter suppression efforts. So we've got a lot of work ahead of us."