After spending all week trying to think of a poignant way of making this announcement, and drawing nothing but blanks, I have decided to just say it as plainly as I can. Today, after more than three years, I am stepping down as the lead writer and managing editor of MyDD. In a little more than three weeks, I will be starting a new website with Matt and one other partner,
Mike Lux of the Huffington Post. Expect to hear more on that in the coming days.
This is not a decision I made lightly, or without real emotional anguish. It is not an exaggeration to say that MyDD has been my life for these past three years. For almost every single one of the past 1,141 days, I threw virtually everything in my being into making this blog work.
As Matt filmed me saying in November, and as I wrote back in December,
my existence has merged with the blog. When MyDD is doing well, I feel like I am doing well. When MyDD isn’t doing well, I feel like I have failed. I blog, therefore I am.
I started blogging on MyDD at a time in my life when little else was going well. My academic career was in the toilet, and the thought of further teaching was literally giving me nightmares. Financially, I was so badly off, that I thought I was going to have to move out of my apartment. I had gone on exactly one date in the previous fourteen months. Considering the situation I was in, when Jerome gave me this chance, I latched onto the site and worked on building it up as though my life depended on it. In some ways, maybe it did. In the movie
Blog Wars, there is a segment where I am giving a speech and crediting Jerome for saving me. It sounds corny, and I cringed when I saw the movie, but it isn’t far from the truth. I will forever be grateful to Jerome, and we are still on the best of terms.
So, why am I moving on? I hinted at the reason in yesterday’s post,
Expanding Beyond Just Partisanship. As much as I have enjoyed writing about politics and elections from a partisan Democratic viewpoint, my political background is in the social justice movement and decidedly on the left. I want to write about more than just elections and political infrastructure, and I want to explicitly work toward building a progressive governing majority. However, to do so would be to take MyDD too far away from its longstanding purpose. I have always argued that successful blogging is focused blogging, and MyDD won’t succeed if it loses its niche and its brand. Also, I want to do much more extended writing on single campaigns, ala
Googlebomb the Elections,
Use It Or Lose It, or
The Inflated Clinton Poll Theory, and join in discussions with a wider variety of individuals and organizations in the progressive movement. Structurally speaking, that means moving somewhat away from the rapid, chronologically backward scrolling format of traditional blogs.
However, even though I am moving on, I will always hold Jerome, Jonathan, MyDD and the community in the utmost esteem for the rest of my life. Also, I imagine I will return to post and comment here from time to time, and that I will also continue to post occasionally until the new website launches in mid-July. There is no way I could ever entirely leave something that has meant this much to me. Also, even though I am “retiring” from MyDD, I will continue to work as hard as I can both within and for the progressive blogosphere community. I have every confidence that we will continue to succeed in our fight to build a progressive America as long as we continue to stay engaged in the fight, and as long as we continue to work together.
In the extended entry, I have compiled my favorite articles and campaigns over the past three years. Ah, memories! Seeing them all listed in one place reminds me just how amazing this time has been. To quote Gonzo the Great, I can sum it all up in one word: “indescribable.”
Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone for making these past three years the best of life. Now, onward and upward!
Update: Thanks everyone for your comments. I almost feel like crying. You guys mean a ton to me.
