Letters to the Editor

• The self-proclaimed "Lefty Blogosphere"

  [Read the article: "Fringe liberal bloggers"]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  (which has never been particularly "leftist" at all, and is "liberal" more in the Libertarian sense than in the commonly accepted political sense) has made a big difference in the national dialogue and has had some limited political influence, but it is far from the Be All and End All that some of its advocates would like to believe. (Glenn, BTW, has never struck me as one of those Lefty Blogospheric Believer-Advocates. He's his own man with an occasionally contrarian point of view.)

  It is widely agreed that Digby is the most insightful and trenchant of the "Lefty" Bloggers, and she is also one of the more truly Liberal of them, and her reveal and speech at the conference is one for the books. This woman should be on the teevee, she should be on the radio, she should be in print in the best periodicals, she should be seen and heard and read constantly, by everyone. And she is not.

  No. She has long had a following within the Blogosphere (since dirt was new and she was posting occasionally at Bartcop and a few other sites), yet her fame is still modest and mostly within a relatively tight circle of relatively long-time readers. Whether that is due to her own self-effacement, I don't know, but the fact is that her views -- which absolutely define Mainstream American Views -- have no outlet whatsoever beyond her own place on the net and the "lefties" who characteristically cite her thusly: "What Digby Said."

  And yet someone who had done nothing and has nothing to say can get picked up by the cable shows or big media journals in a heartbeat if he or she is telegenic and supports the current media narrative regarding public affairs -- and will agree to trash the Liberal Blogosphere.

  Those who declare the "Liberal Blogosphere" to be on the fringe can get away with it in part because its members are so rarely seen, their words so limited in distribution. So long as an initiated coterie are almost the only ones who see, hear, and/or read the words of insight and wisdom available in the Lefty Blogs, so long can they be marginalized by the alleged Mainstream.

  But then we've seen something else in the Mainstream: two thirds of the people polled tend to agree on certain things, such as getting out of Iraq and so on. But that's the Fringe Position of Leftists. Two thirds didn't want Clinton impeached: Fringe Leftists every one. Two thirds want universal health care. Fringy. Leftists. Two thirds would pay more for cleaner energy. Every one of them a Fringy Leftist.

  Two thirds loathe George Bush, and four fifths think he and his cohorts are driving the bus in the wrong direction. Well, guess what the mainstream says? We're all Fringy Leftist Socialist Commies.

  And there's this: who among the Democratic candidates ever raises issues like habeus and the Constitutional subversion of the Busheviks?

  Only those Fringy Leftist candidates who don't have a prayer of ever being elected, right?

  Some major ass-whupping is called for.

  Permalink Wednesday, June 20, 2007 10:50 AM