(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Top Comments: My Netroots Nation Experience Edition [1] ['Dan K'] Date: 2026-06-09 Last week, I finally attended my first NN conference in person. I had previous joined the two that were done virtually during the pandemic. To say I had a blast would be an understatement. It was so cool to be in the presence of many great progressives doing great work around the country including getting to see various elected representatives give rousing speeches at the various keynotes. I got to meet in person quite a few Kossacks I hadn’t before as well as a few I had. I apologize to those whose names I cannot remember. The combination of my severe hearing impairment and loud environment at the Daily Kos meet up on Weds was not helpful. If you were someone who introduced yourself to me during the week, please do let me know. Of the people I can remember by name, I spoke with brillig, mik, Ed Tracey, BeninSC, Markos, Walter Einenkel, and Allison McHenry. I was very surprised Markos remembered who I am by sight. I don’t believe I have seen him in person since his book tour for Crashing the Gates when he was in NYC promoting it. That was roughly 18 years ago. My picture has appeared on this site a few times over the years from various NYC meetups, but those ended with COVID. The week started with me picking up my badge at registration. I saw brillig for the first time there. She asked if I had been receiving emails to which I told her I had not. She brought me over to someone who could help that and he supposedly did some magic on his computer and added my email to my registration. He said I would now receive emails. Yeah, right. That did not happen. I did get lots of text notifications though. Maybe next time. brillig also introduced me to Egberto Willis and told him he should interview me. Unfortunately, he and I did not cross paths again during the conference, so I did not get to make my debut podcast appearance yet. Again, maybe next year. One of my biggest fears whenever I travel alone is waking up early enough to be at meetings and sessions due my not be able to hear an alarm. As is typical, my body has some weird internal alarm clock and I was awake by 7am everyday, so no missing any of the fun. My conference started with the Daily Kos caucus where I was able to blame brillig for getting me to start writing diaries and tell people if they do not like my writing to blame her. LOL brillig also gave me my newbie pin to wear for the conference. The first session I attended was a training session on influencing lawmakers and how form email are the worst way to do so. They also included a bit of history into advocacy groups using form email. The two hosts talked about a number of strategies on how to turn a form email into something more personal giving you a much higher chance of gaining influence. It was fairly obvious but a good reminder. I next went to a screening of a film called Homegrown which followed three men who were all involved in the insurrection, one of whom was from Long Island. I do wish I had a chance to ask about that man and the other people in the area when they were filming on Long Island. I knew a couple of the locations where they filmed, so I wanted to get more info on that. I my reach out via email for more information from them. I went to each of the evening keynotes, but skipped the afternoon one to see more sessions. I also passed on the Thursday karaoke to get some sleep. On Friday, I arrived early and ended up spending some time talking with a couple of people from Institute for Policy Studies. We had an nice discussion about various topics. Then I headed to a panel on county parties which included Anderson Clayton, the chair of the NC Dem Party. It was very interesting to hear what is going on around the country and the issues county parties are having whether it be money or people. Then it was off to an interesting talk on fighting fascism between the US and the EU featuring three members of the EU Parliament and Rep Gene Wu of Texas. I followed that up with a panel on SCOTUS and how we can take it back which included The Nation writer Elie Mystal. I thoroughly enjoyed that panel discussion. My final panel of the day was an interesting discussion on the future of the Democratic Party which including live polls and brainstorming. I am very interested to see what comes of that. One coll thing happened after that panel. As I was walking back to go to the keynotes, I saw Elie Mystal walking by. I did not get to ask a question during his panel discussion, so I made sure I took the chance. He was very accommodating with his time. After the keynotes, it was off to the Pub Quiz. I joined a team that included Ed Tracey called the Orange Middle Fingers. Unfortunately, we did not do very well coming in third to last. There were three questions I should have gotten correct but either just flat our missed the clue or did not push hard enough for my answer to be chosen. I only ended up catching a couple of panels on Saturday because I wanted to get to Reading Terminal Market for some banana pudding which I missed getting last year when I was in Philly for a bridge tournament. My first panel was on Medicare for All in the states. It was done in an interesting way where a Rep from NC basically interviewed a NY state senator, a MI Rep, and a PA Rep on how they were moving single payer healthcare bills through their state Legs. It was interesting to find out, in NY, the government employee unions, by and large, are pushing against single payer healthcare though it is not surprising. NYS public employees have fought for years for the benefits packages they have and health insurance is one of the biggest parts of it coming at the expense of much higher salaries. No surprise they are worried about losing a benefit and getting nothing in return. I also found out single payer healthcare could save county governments anywhere from 80-90% of the money they are currently spending on health insurance and other healthcare costs. I had a question for the NY state senator, who is the chair of the health committee, which had nothing to do with the top, so I waited until after the panel to ask him. He was interested in helping me get my idea implemented even if he is not my state senator and gave me his card and told me to contact him. He would then bring it to the full committee to see if it can be implemented. It is about adding my genetic condition to the newborn screen panel as it is now federally approved for newborn screening. My final panel was again on the Supreme Court. This one featured Sen Sheldon Whitehouse, Lisa Graves, and a few others. Sen Whitehouse will become the chair of the Judiciary Committee should we take back the Senate and has vowed to aggressively investigate the dark money being funneled into the Court as well as push for court reform and expansion and a full ethics package with teeth. Very inspiring. After the keynote, I went over to Shane Confectionery to pick up some candy and chocolate because no trip to Philly is complete without it. Sunday, I spent the day at the Museum of the American Revolution. I had been there the year it opened with my sister, but did not have enough time to see all the exhibits. Of course, I bought stuff in the shop. Finally, Monday was my day to go home. My mom came from Atlantic City where she spent the weekend to pick me up. We went over to Franklin Fountain for sodas and ice cream. This is also a highly recommended stop whenever you are in Philly. In fact, we used both this and Shane’s as the inspiration for the design of our soda fountain and candy shoppe. I had a wonderful time in Philly, and I am really hoping everything works out to be in Denver next year! Diarist reserves all rights to his original writing only. Community material is not covered by this © Now a word from out sponsor and onto the Tops! Here at Top Comments we welcome longtime as well as brand new Daily Kos readers to join us at 10pm Eastern. We strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site’s best, funniest, most mojo’d & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! 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