Letters to the Editor
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@Michael Harold
ok, so you do sound like a moderate, perhaps a left/moderate, and we probably share a lot of common ground.
So, getting to the examples I've cited, do you think "open borders" (to open the borders completely for work and residency) is a great idea? All personal opinion aside, looking at America, is it a moderate idea or even the slightest bit feasible politcally? So, would someone advocating that be a fringe politcally?
Well, Nathan Newman on TPMC advocates that, and a lot of other stuff that is very Marxist, pretty out-there utopia stuff. and I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect that a moderate coming to the site, to read about medical-care reform, could be pretty put off by Newman's comments. If they were teetering on the fence to begin with, we certainly don't need hardline Marxist dogma to scare them off, even if it made any sense, which it doesn't.
That's just one example. I can't do justice to every example there is.
But my point is that there are fringe leftists even on mainstream left blogs, and I think the left would do a lot better to decide if it wants to appeal to the hard left fringe base, or the moderate swing voter.
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Sceptic
For example, the LGF people are certainly a fringe, and most people in real life would probably consider them complete assholes. But on LGF they have found the perfect little echo chamber and assure each other they're god's chosen few.
That's the same as your Limbaugh and Coulter example. There is no equivalent on 'the left' to Limbaugh, Coulter or LGF and the knuckledgragger commenters on LGF.
Got any examples of a left wing blog commenter being convicted and sent to prison for mailing fake death powder to a prominent TV journalist personality and a Democratic Senator? And then bragging about it in the blog comments? That's what an LGF commenter did and that was the result of what the LGF commenter did. Ain't that somethin'?
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Compromise
Hey, I'm perfectly willing to compromise... eventually. Compromise is bullshit though, if you don't put up a healthy fight first. I think it's the "give 'em an inch, they'll take a mile" philosophy. Eveything that has happened since 2000 has taught me that this crop of "consrvatives" will take 10 million miles if you give 'em an inch. Remember "I'm a uniter, not a divider," followed with "you're either with us or against us after 9/11? Fuck those guys. Compromise? Sure... eventually.
ps--Ask a Native American how he feels about "compromise" in the proper historical context, of course.
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Strong Odor of Concern Troll...
...from the skeptic, not to mention buckets full 'o stupid. A couple of giveaways:
The assertive tone, disdain for disagreement, assumption that any disagreement comes from the "fringe".
All the concern about giving "ammunition" to the wingnuts. As has been pointed out, worrying about what some right-wing tool might say and catering to the sacred "Moderate" have been a disaster. The sirens of the right wing noise machine will shreik lies WHATEVER is said by liberals or progressives.
It is useful to remember that many Democrats that WON in the last election were unabashedly progressive/populist regarding trade, taxation, health care, etc., while most of those concerned with appealing to the "moderates" LOST, like Harold Ford.
What matters is strong advocacy of logical, progressive ideas. If some "moderate" is put off by someone expressing a socialist viewpoint, that's too bad, but it can't be helped.
In the immortal words of Jim Hightower, "There's nothing in the middle of the road but yellow lines and dead armadillos"
Selah.
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nerdnam -- Wednesday, June 20, 2007 09:36 AM
Would the 'left' blogosphere be against the invasion of Iraq and torture of detainees if Al Gore had done these things instead of George Bush?
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of Course.
Glenn (and others) very consistently write against those practices, and those that promote or allow those practices. The invasion of Iraq was (and still is) wrong. Torture of detainees was (and still is) wrong. I would be against these actions just as much, if not more, had Gore done them.
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talk about paranoid
I'm pretty sure that healthyskeptic doesn't really like women all that much.
There goes the fringe left BS I'm talking about.
Because I don't think Digby is the bee's knees (I did give her ok, if not great, review) and because I don't like the crap broadsheet writers post, then I must be a misogynist.
Is it really so hard to understand why someone might find the tabloid paranoid rants posted to broadsheet everyday, or "feminist" sites like "bitch" and "feminsisting" (whose logo says fuck-you) to be somewhat less than the women's suffrage movement and other great historical accomplishments of feminism?
That is exactly the kind of "with us or against us" crap that is just the mirror image if the rt wing fundamentalist crap for stupid people. It has a lot more in common with hippies and the cult mentality of the counter-culture movement, and it has always hurt the left in elections.
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no middle? How stupid is that?
In the immortal words of Jim Hightower, "There's nothing in the middle of the road but yellow lines and dead armadillos"
Well, that pretty much flags you as a fringe asshole intent on pissing off not only the right, but the middle as well. (oh, but they don't exist right?) Good job dipshit.
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@Deaf Chick
@Anonymous who posted the transcript to the Digby speech:
You are my newest hero and I could kiss your whole face.
(Assuming that's the kind of thing you'd like.)
- Deaf chick from before
Would you kiss me for doing the transcription? ;)
You're welcome. :)
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accuse your opponents....
...of your own sins. That's the essence of the GOP right-wing strategy. So far, it's worked pretty well, because the American voter, by-and-large, is woefully ignorant about nearly everything they should be informed about.
People like Thompson, and the rest of the GOP candidates, and the entire party, will continue this pathetically dishonest tactic as long as it works: smear your enemies with your own evils. And hope no-one notices.
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Webmaster:
Where is that Ignore This User function?
I am begging you.
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Jim Hightower
I imagine he came up with his "middle of the road..." quip AFTER Karl Rove ruined his political career, not before. I'll ask him next time I bump into him.