November 03, 2006
Blogometer Update
BLOGGER VS. BLOGGER: The Downward Spiral
John Cole at Balloon Juice writes a piece titled simply, 'This Is No Fun.' "I just thought I would go on record stating that the last few weeks and months have really sucked for me." He continues, dramatically:I spent my whole life in the GOP- starting in 1984 with county meetings, going to Teenage Republican camp, and spending the better part the fall of 1984 going door to door for John Raese in his race against Rockefeller (Raese, as you know, lost). Now, 22 years later, I find myself not only refusing to support Raese against Robert Byrd, but I have come to the conclusion that the Republicans are so corrupt, so dishonest, so beholden to special interests and fanatical lobbying groups that Byrd not only looks to be the better option, but the entire Democratic party looks better.
I don’t know when things went south with this party, but for me, Terri Schiavo was the real eye-opener. Sure, the Prescription Drug Plan was hideous and still gets my blood pressure pumping, and the awful bankruptcy bill was equally bad, and there were other things that should have clued me in, but really, it was Schiavo that made me realize this party was not as advertised. And it is frustrating as hell.
What makes this even more frustrating is that not only do I feel like I have been duped, but I established a lot of friends in the right wing of the blogging community- and now I read their pages and I can’t believe what I am reading, even though I know that five years ago I probably would have been saying the same or similar things. I know many of them as people- and not just GOP parrots- having spent time working on collaborative projects with them, serving on the editorial board at Red State, appearing on radio shows with them- you name it. I have, at one point in time, defended many of them from what I perceived to be unfair attacks. So I know that by and large they are not bad people. Yet I read their pages now, and through my eyes, it looks like they are so divorced from reality it makes me question what, if anything, I ever believed in.
Egad. Cole doesn't let up...
In short, it really sucks looking around at the wreckage that is my party and realizing that the only decent thing to do is to pull the plug on them. I am not really having any fun attacking my old friends- but I don’t know how else to respond when people call decent men like Jim Webb a pervert for no other reason than to win an election. I don’t know how to deal with people who think savaging a man with Parkinson’s for electoral gain is appropriate election-year discourse. I don’t know how to react to people who think that calling anyone who disagrees with them on Iraq a “terrorist-enabler” than to swing back. I don’t know how to react to people who think that media reports of party hacks in the administration overruling scientists on issues like global warming, endangered species, intelligent design, prescription drugs, etc., are signs of… liberal media bias.
And it makes me mad. I still think of myself as a Republican- but I think the whole party has been hijacked by frauds and religionists and crooks and liars and corporate shills, and it frustrates me to no end to see my former friends enabling them, and I wonder ‘Why can’t they see what I see?” I don’t think I am crazy, I don’t think my beliefs have changed radically, and I don’t think I have been brainwashed by my commentariat.
I hate getting up in the morning, surfing the news, and finding more and more evidence that my party is nothing but a bunch of frauds. I feel like I am betraying my friends in the party and the blogosphere when I attack them, even though I believe it is they who have betrayed what ‘we’ allegedly believe in. Bush has been a terrible President. The past Congresses have been horrible- spending excessively, engaging in widespread corruption, butting in to things they should have no say in, refusing to hold this administration accountable for ANYTHING, and using wedge issues to keep themselves in power at the expense of gays, etc. And I don’t know why my friends on the right still keep fighting for these guys to stay in power. Why do they keep attacking decent people like Jim Webb- to keep this corrupt lot of fools in office? Why can’t they just admit they were sold a bill of goods and start over? Why do they want to remain in power, but without any principles? Are tax cuts that important? What is gained by keeping troops in harms way with no clear plan for victory? With no desire to change course? With our guys dying every day in what looks to be for no real good reason? Why?
Cole ends his bewildered admission, "I really don’t know where this post is going, so I will just end it now, but I do have to say the past few months have really sucked, and I am completely disillusioned."
Commenter CaseyL remarks, "John, think of it as having left a cult. Seriously." Another commenter, in a moment of levity, says, "To cheer you up, John, I have a funny story about the Hitler Youth..." (Read the rest of LLeo's comment here if you must.)
But it's Markos Moulitsas' words at Daily Kos that are almost as remarkable as Cole's. Kos writes, "Some might read [the post] from conservative blogger John Cole with glee, but I don't. It makes me sad." He continues:
Lest I come off as condescending or patronizing, please understand that I left the Republican Party in 1992 for pretty much the same reasons, if in a different era. It was at the height of the Christian Coalition's rise to power. The deficit was a mess. The politics of Lee Atwater were dragging politics into the gutter -- a foreshadowing of the Reign of Rove. And really, as socially liberal as I am, I am still and always will be a strong supporter of fiscal responsibility and a healthy, robust entrepreneurial business climate. I was a Libertarian Republican in a party already moving toward its present authoritarian foundation.
I was a precinct captain for the Republican Party at the age of 16. I campaigned for Bush Sr. I door knocked, phone banked, stuffed envelopes -- whatever. I have a picture somewhere of me and Papa Bush, taken during one of his campaign swings through Illinois in 1988. I dug up an old comic book I had drawn together. In the dedication page, I dedicated it to the "Republican Party."
And despite all that work, all the emotional investment, all the fights I had gotten into because of my trust in the GOP, I had to come to a realization that it was all for naught. That what I thought and hoped the Republican Party was about really, at the end of the day, was nowhere near the reality. Coming just two years after I tore myself away from the Catholic Church, I felt like everything I had believed in for so long was a cruel lie.
I could be flip and say, "come on in, the water's fine on our side!" But first of all, it's not like our party doesn't have its own problems. And more importantly, partisan fealty, like religion, goes much deeper than the intellect. It cuts to the very core of who we are, of how we define ourselves. That's why for many of the disillusioned, it's simply easier to tune out or become "independent" than it is to jump in bed with the other party.
"Cole will obviously have to figure out for himself where he goes from here," says Kos. "He can decide to fight for his party and hopefully restore some sense of sanity in those quarters. He can join us. ... He can tune out. Or become a dispassionate, 'independent' observer of the political process. But whatever decision he has ahead, he has already made one important one -- he'll refuse to be a conservative sycophant. ... His next step, no matter which one he takes, will be much, much tougher.
KERRY: Kerrypicker
The aforementioned Cole, in an earlier piece which may have triggered his confession above, was not happy with the "predictable, lamentable" overreaction to Sen. John Kerry's remark about education and Iraq that have been played ad-nauseum by cable news outlets. Cole writes:
A general rule of thumb regarding controversies like this is to count how many posts Michelle Malkin has about the issue, and to note that there is a positive correlation to how trivial the matter is and how many posts she has about it. At my last count, she had four on her site, two on her spin-off site Hot Air (who I still think ripped their name off from me). That would tell me that this issue would be somewhere between Cindy Sheehan and crescent-shaped 9/11 memorials and Terri Schaivo in importance, but the possibility is there for a new record.
Predictably, lamentably, the right-wing blogosphere is grievously insulted and has put the grass-roots outrage machine in high gear. Expect record levels of umbrage from all corners.
I wish Kerry had not made the remark (even though he was trying to insult the President and not the troops), but I do find it a little amusing that the people who are ‘upset’ about this remark managed to remain completely silent about this:
Cole posts a thumbnail of the despicable, infamous "purple bandage" stunt at the 2004 Republican Convention, worn by some attendees to mock the wounds that Kerry received Purple Hearts for in Vietnam. Cole continues:
I am sure we all remember the Bush supporters wearing fake purple heart stickers at the 2004 RNC to mock Kerry’s service. Additionally, I note that Malkin and company have not yet moved to condemn the treatment Vietnam war hero Jim Webb is getting at the hands of Red State, where he has been compared to John Mark Karr and today called a pervert. ...
Again, I wish Kerry had not made the remark, but really, it changes nothing. The Republican party has no plan for Iraq other than rhetorical shifts, their policies are not constructed or implemented to actually accomplish anything but rather to maintain Congressional power, and we all will be better off if the GOP is swept out of power. The Republicans are corrupt, morally bankrupt, have no ideas, no principles, and are hoping upon hope that this latest distraction will help to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, the bleeding they care about is at the polls and not the bleeding in Iraq.
"Let’s crush their hopes," Cole wraps.
RI SEN: Severe Chafeeng
Lightning rod/hapless maverick/incumbent GOP Sen. Lincoln Chafee, locked in a tight election battle with the extraordinarily-surnamed Dem challenger Sheldon Whitehouse, released a new 30-second spot in which he simply says, straight to the camera:
All the time, people tell me, "Linc, I really like you. But I have to send Bush a message." I say, when we rushed into Iraq, a majority of Republicans and Democrats voted for the war. I stood against the Senate and the President and voted no. I've always stood for principle, even if it meant standing alone -- and that's a message worth sending to Washington.
Markos Moulitsas quips at Daily Kos, "Chafee admits the reason he will lose." Kathryn Jean Lopez at National Review's The Corner mock-imitates Chafee: "I may take Republican money, but you won't see me vote with them on important issues." LeftCoastTimm comments, "If the twit had just switched to the Democratic Party, he'd be cruising to an easy re-election." lemon999 rues, "I feel bad for Linc, [b]ut I'd rather send the message."
Meanwhile, at YouTube, where the ad is viewable, karlcol snipes, "What a weasel. It may cost the Republicans the Senate, but getting rid of this RINO [Republican In Name Only] would be worth it." And we leave off with fishhead06's rib: "If Chafee puts any more distance between himself and Bush, he'll start orbiting the Earth."
[Mike Sheehan]Posted by Conn Carroll at November 3, 2006 03:54 PM
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