Letters to the Editor
healthyskeptic
Published Letters: 671 Editor's Choice: 14
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fringe line
[Read the article: "Fringe liberal bloggers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The ones Digby identified are certainly credible descriptions that define the liberal blogosphere, and could hardly be called fringe.
To clarify, I'm not saying the left blogsosphere is "fringe" and in fact I think the left blgs are still the best places to get news and hear about sensible policy, overall, and with some common sense weeding out of kooks.
I'm just saying parts of it are fringe, and that some bloggers pander to the fringes on occasion, which hurts the left more than helps. and the left could improve by weeding out the fringes, and delineating better between the mainstream left bloggers, and the kooks.
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@ Karen - Yeah, I know.
[Read the article: "Fringe liberal bloggers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]the majority of the American people are already to the left of the Congress
Yeah, I know. Which is why I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of rt wing congress people leave office in 2008.
But that doesn't mean the left should over-reach either.
The problem with a lot of fringe people is that they think if Republicans are wrong, they're automatically correct. Not so. Very often the mainstream is in-between, and the side that over-reaches the most will bring woe on their party and the country.
For example, many wanted a response to 9/11, and bombing Afghanistan was absolutely popular. Now, some peaceniks would argue against war altogether, (not saying it's a popular view on the left, just hypotheitcally) but I say the political reality is that people wanted war with afghantistan after 9/11, and had a left candidate managed to supress retaliation against Afghanistan (just hypothetically) it would have resulted in an outpouring of blood lust next time something went wrong, and we could even do something really nuts like start a shooting war with a nuclear NKorea. Point being, over reach results in unintended consequences and blowback often greater than the original issue.
What happened was Bush the idiot was in office, Iraq was an terrible over reach, and the Reps are now paying the price for it, and going to continue to do so in a big way, unless the Dems do something equally over-reaching.
If the Dems bring in fringe people like Gravel for example, or of dem candidates are perceived as being run by the left fringe, then the Dems will be blamed for anything and everything that goes wrong in the world, and be vulnerable to Republicans running as hawks again in short order.
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@doofusX
[Read the article: "Fringe liberal bloggers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]yeah, you. got any other witty one liners?
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@anonymous
[Read the article: "Fringe liberal bloggers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"we" are underwhelmed.
Actually, you're just an anonymous troll, and I suspect you're actually brightstar or one of the other right wing trolls who want nothing more than for left wingers to keep shooting themselves in the foot by staking out fringe positions Republicans know they beat Dems on.
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hippies
[Read the article: "Fringe liberal bloggers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The counter-culture movement, as their name implies, was hostile to the mainstream culture, in name and in practice, and not surprisingly alienated a lot of people and drove them away from their causes.
The notion that hippies and the CC movement were harmless and always peaceful, what a load of crap.
Today, hippy is a dirty word with the majority of Americans. And only hippies think that's all a big conspiracy against them, who tend to isolate themselves among the like minded, but still can;t win elections or contribute to any popular political victory.
As social movements go, they were and are real fuckups producing much more reaction against their causes than positive support.
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@kitt
[Read the article: "Fringe liberal bloggers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Kitt, that you're trying to make some political point about the broader culture from Johny Cash, well it's just pathetic and makes you seem rather stupid and incapable of distinguishing between trivia in your own life, and actual historic events.
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@SomeNYGuy
[Read the article: "Fringe liberal bloggers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Let me know when you have anything substantive to say. It would be a first.
In the meanwhile, FYI, the back civil rights most certainly did avoid gay rights as a practical matter, as well as a host of other issues popular in some left fringes, but totally unpopular with the mainstream.
One of the key architects of the early black civil rights movement was gay, and once he was outed, distanced himself from the movement on his own initiative, and with appreciation from others in the movement, so as not to hurt it. Had black civil rights been associated with gays, or communists, or such other totally unpopular causes, it would have dealt a huge blow to the movement's popularity and set it back considerably.
The reality is that while desegregation was politically feasible in the 1940s and 50s, gay rights certainly were not popular. Half a century later, gay marriage is still something like 70% against, and has been a disaster in the most recent hearing.
Also, as another example, ending slavery was popular enough that Lincoln was able to raise an army for it. Had he gone further, for example to mandate desegregation, he would not have held a majority or been able to do so.
That's political reality for you.
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@ stupid
[Read the article: "Fringe liberal bloggers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]the majority of Americans don't know a "hippy" from a "flapper."
Hello?
Many hippies were young (teens to 20's) in the late 60's and 70's meaning they're in their 60's now. Which means people do in fact know quite a lot of hippies and ex-hippies. Flappers were around in the 20s and 30s. So most died decades ago. A slight difference.
Nice try. Stupid, but A for effort.
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@LWM
[Read the article: "Fringe liberal bloggers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This is like the 20th time he's trotted this lame quip out of the cliche factory.
Calling for substantive comment is a cliche?
Like I said, let me know when you have anything substantive to say.
I see you don't though.
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@ Nequals1
[Read the article: "Fringe liberal bloggers"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Fringe stands for Constitution, for rule of law, for civil rights, and for government by the people and for the people, for classic virtues.
Those, mom and apple pie, are called bumper sticker cliches, every candidate from right to left runs on. Got anything else?