When I started this blog a year ago, it had modest expectations. Its main purpose was to help publicize the book I had written, The Strange Death of Liberal America. I envisioned the posts would serve as a supplement to the book, enabling me to comment on developments that had occurred since the book went to press.
Little did I expect that I would still be blogging a year later, that the site would have a million hits and developed a group of core readers. Even more important I would not have met both readers and fellow bloggers who have not only become online friends but also quite literally enabled this blog to survive.
Originally the site followed the book’s main framework, which stresses that the main idea of Liberal America is that one of the main duties of government is to keep the playing field level. Four cornerstones support that idea–educational equity, social and economic justice, media fairness and voting rights–and served as the main topics of the posts. Some of the early posts even had a graphic with those cornerstones.
However, the most radical part of the blog was that it would consist mostly of long posts that treated issues in depth. That is, each post would actually research an issue and contain primary sources that supported its conclusions. This was radical stuff then and it is now.
As you know, most blogs consist of short posts I would liken to oped pieces or editorials. Writers just say what they think about an issue, most with little to support their conclusions other than their passions. Don’t get me wrong; passion is important. Without it politics and life would be very dull–like a John Kerry speech.
In fact I wonder if Kerry did not play a role in the formation of liberal blogosphere because the man has about as much passion as a cucumber. Had he responded in just one of those debates like many bloggers, we might not be dealing with the most insane and immoral administration in American history.
After the 2004 election those who did not blame Kerry’s loss on illegal voting practices, blamed the American people. Even some close friends were saying the American people were stupid because they had fallen for George W. Bush. How could anyone vote for Bush, they asked?
Both the book and the blog were motivated by the belief that the American people were not stupid, but rather had been manipulated, lied to and even systematically prevented from exercising their franchise. I believed that a blog that spoke to readers intelligently and gave them the facts they needed to counter the Counterrevolution’s propaganda could succeed.
Currently in both the mainstream media, political periodicals and even the blogosphere there are very few opportunities for writers who write longer, thoughtful pieces. You can count on one hand the mainstream magazines that publish political articles over 2,500 words–The New Yorker, the Atlantic, the New York Times Magazine, Harpers, The New York Review of Books…As for books, when I finished the manuscript for Strange Death my regular agent declined to pick it up because, in his words, books about politics don’t sell unless the writer is famous. It took a great editor at Praeger, Hilary Claggett, to prove him wrong.
I believe strongly that as our political discourse has been reduced to short rants and sound bites, we have gotten the politics we deserve. An idiot like George W. Bush could become president not because the American people were stupid but because the American media treated them as if they were stupid. That is why on Saturday I published Ed Murrow’s speech.
I had no illusions that a single blog or person could turn this trend around, but as someone who writes about values it seemed important to remain true to those values. A year later, you readers have more than justified my faith. People will read long posts and they will comment intelligently about them. In a year of blogging, I have not received a single comment that I would consider abusive or that used foul language.
It has been a real pleasure to have such a great group of readers. I think of this blog as being as much yours as mine and hope you will also. That may sound gratuitous, but without readers there is no blog and without a dialogue between writer and readers there is no learning. Of course, any writer wants to know people like reading what they write, that it has had some impact on their lives or made them think. But I also want people to tell me when I miss and why. What kinds of articles do you want to read and what would you just as soon skip?
Besides having a great group of readers this blog would not have survived without a great group of fellow bloggers who have mentored and encouraged me. The first, and in many ways the key to the success of this site, has been Doug Marquardt of All Things Democrat. Doug was the first one who asked me to post on his site. But more than that, he knows programming. Several times when this blog was in deep trouble–once under a troll/point of service attack that totally messed up everything–he took the time to explain to me how to fix things.
The second was Maryscott O’Conner of My Left Wing, who has justifiably earned her title of Fairy Blogmother. Early on I sent her the usual bloggers email asking her to list this blog on her blogroll. She wrote back and asked me if I would wanted to post on her front page. As they say in Hollywood, it was a big break. Since then Maryscott has continued to believe in my work even during a time when I did not believe in it myself.
Through My Left Wing I met Nonpartisan of Progressive Historians, who also asked me to be a “front pager.” That in turn lead to my posting on NION (Never in Our Names). Both of those sites have become favorites of mine because they also believe in not underestimating their audience.
I also want to recognize two people and blogs that have contributed much to the success of this blog. The first is Mike Finnegan at Crooks and Liars. If Maryscott is the Fairy Blogmother, C and L is the Patron Blogsaint. “Mike’s Blog Roundup” has taken as its mission to recognize new and lesser-known blogs like this one and brought a great deal of traffic to this site. While certain blogs seem to go out of their way to exclude people, Mike wants to include everyone and encourage those of us who operate “off the beaten path.” That phrase, by the way is Mike’s.
The other blog is Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. Skippy not only has the best logo in what he terms Blogtopia, but a huge heart. When the “Great Blogroll Purge” took place it was Skippy who stepped forward and said he would place anyone who asked on his blogroll. It was a particularly courageous action at a time when bloggers needed someone to step forward and oppose that attempt at media monopolization. Skippy has since been one of those who have encouraged me and this site.
Finally one more (this is beginning to sound like an Academy Award speech). I met Wayne Bennet of the Field Negro through My Left Wing. Wayne is one of Blogtopia’s (copyright Skippy) true gems. His blog “tells it like it is,” as we used to say. Wayne introduced me to the AfroSpear, which I think may be the most interesting and important blog group. More than that, Wayne has been a mentor whose encouragement has meant a great deal to me.
You will notice this list omits those blogs some of us call the Big Dogs. I will not name them here because they don’t need any more citations. Besides these are not nice people. They are arrogant, nasty, they rip people off (all those poor diarists essentially support them–just like indentured servants) and their politics are not especially imaginative. Some of you who have been reading for awhile probably remember a post I wrote awhile ago titled “Blogdom as High School.” That is, Blogdom as in fiefdom or kingdom.
This small, exclusive club of blogs somehow have convinced the same idiots in the press who believe all articles should be fifty words or less that they speak for the rest of us. Liberal blogdom is their kingdom. Of course, this only confirms the shallowness of the research done by the mainstream press. If they had any imagination at all or knew how to perform even an elementary search they would find that not only are the Big Dogs not the only game in town, but they aren’t that good. Give me any of the above blogs over them.
My sense is this is what led to the purge. The Big Dogs no longer are the only game in town. So they have decided to make it as difficult as hell for the rest of us to get any recognition. Like the “in crowd” in high school they deliberately shun and even try to hurt the rest of us. Right now they have My Left Wing is their sights and their orcs are posting comments designed to take that site down.
Renee in Ohio is trying to counter this through the Independent Bloggers Alliance, but the Big Dogs have shut her off and the natural independence of bloggers (the cliche about “herding cats” comes to mind) have made things difficult. Still this site supports her efforts.
In the end it is you the readers who will decide the fate of the Blogosphere just as you have decided the fate of this blog. I have little doubt that you will make the right decisions if you are given the information you need. You might say the fate of political blogosphere is going to be decided by mice.
As for the future of this blog, I don’t know. I am starting another book and have rough outlines for two more. Because I am disabled at some point it may prove difficult to do both. We will have to see.
Thanks again to all of you. It has been a great ride.
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