The Blogosphere: Miss two days, and you miss a lot!
I’ve got three really basic points on defecting liberals like Michael Totten, Armed Liberal, and Roger L. Simon (commentary from Jack O’Toole, Greg Greene, Kevin Drum and Kevin Drum II, Matthew Yglesias, Armed Liberal and Armed Liberal II, Roger L. Simon and Roger L. Simon II, Michael Totten… it goes on and on. Big roundup here).
1. Inescapably, I think that they’re wrong, for reasons best expressed by Kevin Drum here. The Democratic Party and its leading presidential candidates have positions on terrorism that don’t sound a dang thing like ANSWER or whoever. Denouncing the anti-war movement for wanting to immediately withdraw from Iraq is fine. But you can’t really denounce the Democratic party with the same talking points. Kuchnich has said that he would withdraw from Iraq. No one else has. On the basis of their positions, these folks seem like they would have more common ground with Clark than Bush.
And yet we get comments like this, from “Captain Ed” on Roger Simon’s blog:
It’s difficult for me to understand why no Democrat except Lieberman understands what’s at stake. It’s as if they believe 9/11 was an aviation accident, the USS Cole blew up on its own, our embassies in Africa were attacked by right-wing militia groups, and Saddam Hussein was a popular autocrat whose peaceful benevolence was undermined by the US. In short, it seems like they live in Bizarro World.
I’d be willing to say that this comment is utterly divorced from reality. It’s about as true as saying “The Republicans want to convert all of Arizona to mole farming.” And yet it got a chorus of Amens. I do not get it.
2. Armed Liberal says, “It’s not a schtick, it’s a movement.” and Michael Totten says that Democrats are in a lot of trouble. Hmm. I strongly agree with the weak version of his point: Democrats have got to come across as strong and credible on national defense in order to attract Democratic-leaning independents and moderate Democrats. No problem there.
But the strong version- “The defection of the aforementioned bloggers is the tip of an iceberg that will really hurt the Democrats”- well, maybe.
Are the Democrats facing a more severe crisis than when Ronald Reagan turned right? Or Michael Kelly? Or Ben Nighthorse Campbell, or Richard Shelby? Or Glenn Reynolds? Or the neo-cons? Or my dad, or (probably) your dad? You get my point: people cross party lines all the time. For as long as I’m aware, people have moved from left to right, for any number of perfectly respectable reasons, more often than they seem to move from right to left.
If these good people decide that they need to leave the Democratic party, I’ll be sad about that. We could use their energy and intelligence. But it doesn’t mean that the sky is falling.
3. I am a participant in a strange, small internet subculture of political bloggers, which has a strong polarizing effect on most people. When I write something especially sharp against Bush or against a specific conservative, I get links, praise and traffic from people I respect. Furthermore, I’m at least as likely to get angry, insulting disagreement as I am to get reasonable counterarguments. It’s enough to convince you that people who agree with you are rational and polite, whereas people who disagree with you are rude, incoherent assholes. You occasionally see parenthetical notes to that effect (“The left sure is angry- you should see my email!”), especially on the more popular blogs.
Invest enough time and energy in blogging, and it’s hard not to respond to that.
I have no doubt that the “liberal defectors” in question are writing exactly what they believe. They all seem like honorable people. But they’re under the same pressure. When they write something critical of the Democrats, they get links and praise from the top-level blogs, a flood of comments, and even occasional paid writing gigs.
I very much doubt that the attention from Instapundit, the Wall Street Journal, Andrew Sullivan, Tech Central Station, etc. has ever made any of these folks say something that they didn’t believe, or write something that they didn’t want to write. But they’re only human, and I suspect that it’s had an effect on what they want to write about.
http://www.aldaily.com/darwin_and_political_theory.html
Well, I’m mulling your comments over, and will start with the low-hanging fruit of point #3.
As I’ve oft noted before, I am an “armed liberal”, and my interest in blogging is to try and work though how it is that I manage to contain such apparently contradictory values.
So, sadly, it isn’t all the link love I get from Instapundit that drives me to positions on these issues, it’s that they seem to resonate, sadly, with more of the center-right of the Blogosphere than the left.
I’ve found a number of bloggers (and commenters) who seem to be working through many of the same issues - Matt Welch, Michael Totten, Roger Simon - which suggests to me that it’s not an abberation.
It happens that I blog in a collective blog with a bunch of people more conservative than I am, and so I think there is a kind of negative ‘halo effect’ at work for me at least, there.
But I’m working hard at reconnecting with my inner liberal, and at opening constructive dialogs with liberal blogs. Personally, I’d as soon get attention via Kevin Drum as Glenn Reynolds, or via you folks than Roger Simon. But it hasn’t seemed to work that way, for social-network reasons that themselves might be interesting to explore.
And as a final note, my goal isn’t to leave the Democratic Party. I posted, in response to a link from Instapundit, what my real goal is:
“To Glenn, I’ll comment that while my posts are pretty critical of the DNC establishment, they are critical with an eye toward creating an unassailable Democratic hegemony…so watch out!!”
A.L.
Since I’ve now been named, my one cent on the issue is this — the AL/MT/RS/Jeff Jarvis wing are all, “dude, how could you not want to depose Saddam ASAP & confront the Bid Ladenite threat by all vigor necessary?” And the KD/MY wing are all, “dude, understanding the threat & determining the best policy are two different things, and we’re very concerned that the U.S. is failing to build alliances, is putting its neck out everywhere, and basing some of its decisions on faulty intelligence and/or a worrisome ideology.”
It mostly depends on where you stand/stood on the Iraq war, and if you believe in your stance passionately it’s natural to search for the double-secret reasons as to why people who otherwise share many of your politics don’t agree. It’s an interesting debate, but I don’t think any partisan will be persuaded out of his/her position, and I think the tendency to draw Big Conclusions About American Politics is mostly folly. But what the hell do I know?
Well, as I commented on Calpundit the chief difference between A.L. and Kevin Drum seems to be over the ‘clash of civilizations’ meme. But I could be wrong, of course, and only Kevin D. and A.L. can really settle the matter. Oh well.
I’ve been reading about how the Dems needed to be more centrist to win since 1972 (which seems to be what this is about) and then in 2001 it was all “the Greens are so big now they can split the party”.
But basically it comes down to whether you’re a Scoop Jackson Liberal supporting a military-industrial-corporatist state, or a George McGovern liberal.
And for everyone who thinks everything is different now, take a look at Churchill’s The Gathering Storm, in which, discussing post WW I Germany he touches on many of the issues that are now discussed about Iraq.
But, frankly, I’ve never seen posts with so many names and so few identifiable opinions, so I could be confused. It sure sounds familiar though.
My dad supports Kucinich. Leave him out of this.
À Gauche
Jeremy Alder
Amaravati
Anggarrgoon
Audhumlan Conspiracy
H.E. Baber
Philip Blosser
Paul Broderick
Matt Brown
Diana Buccafurni
Brandon Butler
Keith Burgess-Jackson
Certain Doubts
David Chalmers
Noam Chomsky
The Conservative Philosopher
Desert Landscapes
Denis Dutton
David Efird
Karl Elliott
David Estlund
Experimental Philosophy
Fake Barn County
Kai von Fintel
Russell Arben Fox
Garden of Forking Paths
Roger Gathman
Michael Green
Scott Hagaman
Helen Habermann
David Hildebrand
John Holbo
Christopher Grau
Jonathan Ichikawa
Tom Irish
Michelle Jenkins
Adam Kotsko
Barry Lam
Language Hat
Language Log
Christian Lee
Brian Leiter
Stephen Lenhart
Clayton Littlejohn
Roderick T. Long
Joshua Macy
Mad Grad
Jonathan Martin
Matthew McGrattan
Marc Moffett
Geoffrey Nunberg
Orange Philosophy
Philosophy Carnival
Philosophy, et cetera
Philosophy of Art
Douglas Portmore
Philosophy from the 617 (moribund)
Jeremy Pierce
Punishment Theory
Geoff Pynn
Timothy Quigley (moribund?)
Conor Roddy
Sappho's Breathing
Anders Schoubye
Wolfgang Schwartz
Scribo
Michael Sevel
Tom Stoneham (moribund)
Adam Swenson
Peter Suber
Eddie Thomas
Joe Ulatowski
Bruce Umbaugh
What is the name ...
Matt Weiner
Will Wilkinson
Jessica Wilson
Young Hegelian
Richard Zach
Psychology
Donyell Coleman
Deborah Frisch
Milt Rosenberg
Tom Stafford
Law
Ann Althouse
Stephen Bainbridge
Jack Balkin
Douglass A. Berman
Francesca Bignami
BlunkettWatch
Jack Bogdanski
Paul L. Caron
Conglomerate
Jeff Cooper
Disability Law
Displacement of Concepts
Wayne Eastman
Eric Fink
Victor Fleischer (on hiatus)
Peter Friedman
Michael Froomkin
Bernard Hibbitts
Walter Hutchens
InstaPundit
Andis Kaulins
Lawmeme
Edward Lee
Karl-Friedrich Lenz
Larry Lessig
Mirror of Justice
Eric Muller
Nathan Oman
Opinio Juris
John Palfrey
Ken Parish
Punishment Theory
Larry Ribstein
The Right Coast
D. Gordon Smith
Lawrence Solum
Peter Tillers
Transatlantic Assembly
Lawrence Velvel
David Wagner
Kim Weatherall
Yale Constitution Society
Tun Yin
History
Blogenspiel
Timothy Burke
Rebunk
Naomi Chana
Chapati Mystery
Cliopatria
Juan Cole
Cranky Professor
Greg Daly
James Davila
Sherman Dorn
Michael Drout
Frog in a Well
Frogs and Ravens
Early Modern Notes
Evan Garcia
George Mason History bloggers
Ghost in the Machine
Rebecca Goetz
Invisible Adjunct (inactive)
Jason Kuznicki
Konrad Mitchell Lawson
Danny Loss
Liberty and Power
Danny Loss
Ether MacAllum Stewart
Pam Mack
Heather Mathews
James Meadway
Medieval Studies
H.D. Miller
Caleb McDaniel
Marc Mulholland
Received Ideas
Renaissance Weblog
Nathaniel Robinson
Jacob Remes (moribund?)
Christopher Sheil
Red Ted
Time Travelling Is Easy
Brian Ulrich
Shana Worthen
Computers/media/communication
Lauren Andreacchi (moribund)
Eric Behrens
Joseph Bosco
Danah Boyd
David Brake
Collin Brooke
Maximilian Dornseif (moribund)
Jeff Erickson
Ed Felten
Lance Fortnow
Louise Ferguson
Anne Galloway
Jason Gallo
Josh Greenberg
Alex Halavais
Sariel Har-Peled
Tracy Kennedy
Tim Lambert
Liz Lawley
Michael O'Foghlu
Jose Luis Orihuela (moribund)
Alex Pang
Sebastian Paquet
Fernando Pereira
Pink Bunny of Battle
Ranting Professors
Jay Rosen
Ken Rufo
Douglas Rushkoff
Vika Safrin
Rob Schaap (Blogorrhoea)
Frank Schaap
Robert A. Stewart
Suresh Venkatasubramanian
Ray Trygstad
Jill Walker
Phil Windley
Siva Vaidahyanathan
Anthropology
Kerim Friedman
Alex Golub
Martijn de Koning
Nicholas Packwood
Geography
Stentor Danielson
Benjamin Heumann
Scott Whitlock
Education
Edward Bilodeau
Jenny D.
Richard Kahn
Progressive Teachers
Kelvin Thompson (defunct?)
Mark Byron
Business administration
Michael Watkins (moribund)
Literature, language, culture
Mike Arnzen
Brandon Barr
Michael Berube
The Blogora
Colin Brayton
John Bruce
Miriam Burstein
Chris Cagle
Jean Chu
Hans Coppens
Tyler Curtain
Cultural Revolution
Terry Dean
Joseph Duemer
Flaschenpost
Kathleen Fitzpatrick
Jonathan Goodwin
Rachael Groner
Alison Hale
Household Opera
Dennis Jerz
Jason Jones
Miriam Jones
Matthew Kirschenbaum
Steven Krause
Lilliputian Lilith
Catherine Liu
John Lovas
Gerald Lucas
Making Contact
Barry Mauer
Erin O'Connor
Print Culture
Clancy Ratcliff
Matthias Rip
A.G. Rud
Amardeep Singh
Steve Shaviro
Thanks ... Zombie
Vera Tobin
Chuck Tryon
University Diaries
Classics
Michael Hendry
David Meadows
Religion
AKM Adam
Ryan Overbey
Telford Work (moribund)
Library Science
Norma Bruce
Music
Kyle Gann
ionarts
Tim Rutherford-Johnson
Greg Sandow
Scott Spiegelberg
Biology/Medicine
Pradeep Atluri
Bloviator
Anthony Cox
Susan Ferrari (moribund)
Amy Greenwood
La Di Da
John M. Lynch
Charles Murtaugh (moribund)
Paul Z. Myers
Respectful of Otters
Josh Rosenau
Universal Acid
Amity Wilczek (moribund)
Theodore Wong (moribund)
Physics/Applied Physics
Trish Amuntrud
Sean Carroll
Jacques Distler
Stephen Hsu
Irascible Professor
Andrew Jaffe
Michael Nielsen
Chad Orzel
String Coffee Table
Math/Statistics
Dead Parrots
Andrew Gelman
Christopher Genovese
Moment, Linger on
Jason Rosenhouse
Vlorbik
Peter Woit
Complex Systems
Petter Holme
Luis Rocha
Cosma Shalizi
Bill Tozier
Chemistry
"Keneth Miles"
Engineering
Zack Amjal
Chris Hall
University Administration
Frank Admissions (moribund?)
Architecture/Urban development
City Comforts (urban planning)
Unfolio
Panchromatica
Earth Sciences
Our Take
Who Knows?
Bitch Ph.D.
Just Tenured
Playing School
Professor Goose
This Academic Life
Other sources of information
Arts and Letters Daily
Boston Review
Imprints
Political Theory Daily Review
Science and Technology Daily Review