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While we should celebrate the breadth and diversity of Left and Democratic blogdom and decry the seemingly “scripted” nature of the Republicans there is more to the picture.First, there exists less unity on the GOP side if one throws the Religious Right into the equation as well as those wingnuts that post from places that lie down the back roads of the human mind. The Religious Right reminds me a bit of the Iraq War Left in that it knows what it is against, but has yet to center on a candidate or even prioritized what it is for. I predict this group will decide the Republican nominee. They comprise the swing votes at the convention and they turn out heavily at caucuses and primaries.
Stlll it is true that on the GOP side things seems more unified, which I don’t think is accidental. If we on the left decry kos and his moola, an issue awaits a few energetic investigative reporters who might take some time away from bashing lefty blogs to trace GOP-leaning blogs and their relationships to formal GOP committees and campaign contributors.
As one who traced the Swift Boat story, what I find interesting is that people have forgotten how that issue appeared to arise too spontaneously and too simultaneously in too many places on the Net to have been an accident. Although still unproven, it also has been charged that Karl Rove masterminded the trashing of John McCain that occurred on the Net during the South Carolina primary. You can bet that the former master of the direct mail campaign has figured out how to use the direct email campaign and how to quickly link blogs so they speak in unity.
But shadowy conspiracies do not tell the important story. The Republicans speak with one voice because they have a single tune to sing, for which everyone has long-practiced the words and music. What I term the “Countererevolutionary Chorus” consists of variations on the long-standing Thurmond/Reagan “no big government” theme.
The Democrats have no such unity. Instead of a chorus, the Party and its blogs represent a cacophony of single issue button-pushers singing completely different tunes. They fail to agree on even the most basic values. So when an issue such as Iraq comes along the party cannot compose anything with harmony.
In Strange Death I wrote that Liberal America’s value of the level playing field, which had united the Democrats for most of the last century, does not belong to any single party. Right now the Net is abuzz with attempts to recover this lost moral compass, but not many of them are coming from the Left which seems almost obsessed with Iraq. The most audacious of these attempts is a third party that promises to conduct its entire convention online. But one also hears it in voices of people of color, who wonder will New Orleans will get the same attention as Baghdad?
that lie down the back roads of the human mind. The Religious Right reminds me a bit of the Iraq War Left in that it knows what it is against, but has yet to center on a candidate or even prioritized what it is for. I predict Religious Right will decide the Republican nominee. They comprise the swing votes at the convention and they turn out heavily at caucuses and primaries.
Still it is true that on the GOP side things seems more unified, which I don’t think is accidental. If we on the left decry kos and his moola, an issue awaits a few energetic investigative reporters who might take some time away from bashing lefty blogs to trace GOP-leaning blogs and their relationships to formal GOP committees and campaign contributors.
As one who traced the Swift Boat story, what I find interesting is that people have forgotten how that issue appeared to arise too spontaneously and too simultaneously in too many places on the Net to have been an accident. Although still unproven, it also has been charged that Karl Rove masterminded the trashing of John McCain that occurred on the Net during the South Carolina primary. You can bet that the former master of the direct mail campaign has figured out how to use the direct email campaign and how to quickly link blogs so they speak in unity.
But shadowy conspiracies do not tell the important story. The Republicans speak with one voice because they have a single tune to sing, for which everyone has long-practiced the words and music. What I term the “Countererevolutionary Chorus” consists of variations on the long-standing Thurmond/Reagan “no big government” theme.
The Democrats have no such unity–other than the me-too veiled Republicanism that passes for the Party’s main stream. Instead of a chorus, the Party and its blogs represent a cacophony of single issue button-pushers singing completely different tunes. They fail to agree on or support even the most basic values. It is a sad comment on the state of the party that when a clear moral issue such as Iraq comes along the party cannot compose anything with harmony.
In Strange Death I wrote that Liberal America’s value of the level playing field, which had united the Democrats for most of the last century, does not belong to any single party. Right now the Net is abuzz with attempts to recover this lost moral compass, but not many of them are coming from the Democrats or their candidates. The most audacious of these attempts is a third party that promises to conduct its entire convention online. But one also hears it in voices of people of color, who wonder will New Orleans will get the same attention as Baghdad?
And one hears it in voices like the post, by Gottlieb on My Left Wing, “The Ballot Box or the Cartridge Box?” I wish I could have quoted the following sentence for the book, because it expresses an important truth about what I call Liberal America:
Liberty grows from the ground up, through the eternal struggle of those seeking freedom versus those holding onto tyranny; the light-seekers versus an entrenched aristocracy that believes in its collective heart that one class is ordained by god to rule over all others.
The diversity of the Left has always been its strength. One can almost see it in an organic sense as providing multiple options and making sure our ideas do not become inbred.
Still, at some point we need to come together. In 2004 and 2006 sheer hatred for George W. Bush created a temporary unity that will not be there after we no longer have “George to kick around.” This represents the true threat of kos and the Big Blogs, because they appear to espouse a strategy that says winning is the only important thing even if we elect closet Dixiecrats like Marie Landrieu or Heath Shuler.
Right now I see few blogs representing what the late Paul Wellstone called “the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.” Wellstone himself defined that wing as what he called the “American justice tradition,” which is another way of saying the level playing field. Just as the Republicans will face the question of which way the Religious Right will lean so the Democrats face the question of what the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party will do in the coming contest. So far none of the candidates appear to be listening. That is how parties die and third parties arise.
Gottlieb’s post makes a pretty good case for the latter. Whether you agree with him or not, we all can agree time is running out.
Ralph Brauer also blogs at My Left Wing, All Things Democrat, and Progressive Historians.
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