Oh, for Metafuckingsake!

 

 

Politically savvy bloggers make ready to fight, once again, the '08 Primary season.

 

I can’t be the only blogger who is hairball-spewing weary of hearing OMFG WHERE IS UR PROGRESSIVE GOD NOW, O-BOTCHES, HUH? crrrap from fellow bloggers who offer no suggestions, themselves, on how to move the progressive cause forward under an Obama administration.

From Josh Marshall comes a "Whither, blogosphere?" piece that many overly-remunerated members of our stinky media would be apt to pen re: Newspapers:

The Liberal Blogosphere’s Uncertain Future [...] “Now, will that outsider status/passion be enough to fuel the movement in years to come? Honestly, I don't know. And at least one reader below mentioned they noticed a decline in the quality of liberal blog content in 2009. The fact is, I think it's a lot more difficult to be compelling while being nuanced, which is what most bloggers have been since Obama moved into the WH.”

 

Seriously, anyone who thinks blog-content quality has declined in 2009 hasn't been reading blogs very long. As for their treatment of the new president, I'm not at all sure that bloggers are being “nuanced” in their support for Obama, I think that a better way to put it might be that many bloggers are just uncertain how to proceed when a new Democratic administration is in the White House, and the Democratic party controls both houses of congress, yet the bloggers' requests go unanswered, their policy ideas are ignored, or worse, and their support is deemed unnecessary. It might be true to say that bloggers have shown a variety of responses to this situation. But the ones that could best be described as "nuanced" are from bloggers who held nuanced positions on Obama from the beginning of the 2008 election season.

The blog OpenLeft has had a few good posts on the subject of how to enact liberal/progressive policies, articles that give food for thought and inspiration in laying down a good foundation from which to advance progressive ideas. One of my own humble suggestions regards messaging. Briefly, the simplest clear message the blogs can broadcast and reinforce needs to change, from “More and Better Democrats” to “Make Them Do It”.

And P.S. It's still worth pondering why Obama in 2008 enjoyed "unquestioning love" from the blogs, as Armando put it, considering he was running on essentially the same platform that he's now trying to put into action; a platform that regularly prompts jabs from liberals online.

 

For the sake of fuck. Will A-listers start treating all other bloggers as a monolithic entity, the way that blue-dog democrats and FOX News do now? (Not to mention that Marshall's source for that quote can hardly be considered disinterested. Armando has had an ax to grind over Obama for over a year now, ever since it looked like his preferred candidate was going to lose.)

Let me see if I can put this in easy-to-understand terms:

Many Obama supporters knew that he would not be a “progressive savior” (the ones who had been through more than one election, anyway). I and many other bloggers filled up countless comment threads arguing this very point. We knew that Obama’s economic advisors came from the Friedman/Chicago school of economics, and we knew his voting record. Not to mention that there were all these Hillary supporters out there calling bullshit whenever Obama looked like he might smile at a Republican (no, I didn’t like it either, but the man was trying to get elected).

I think a lot of bloggers forget these days that a vote for Obama in the DNC primary was a vote against continuing the illegal occupation of Iraq, and that a lot of bloggers saw then-Senator Clinton’s position on Iraq as being to the right of Obama’s. Her vote on Iraq being one thing that she would not explain, and for which she would not apologize. Clinton’s support for the war was a major factor in her losing the bloggers’ vote.

In the general election, most of us supported Obama because we thought that the alternative, a McCain/Palin administration, would be a surreal nightmare that would have made Bush/Cheney seem like Romper Room in comparison. But that doesn’t mean that we saw Obama’s eventual presidency as the final goal of the liberal blogosphere.

Yes, Obama has some exuberant followers who may not think everything through. Which popular politician doesn’t? A lot of them saw his “Vulcan chess” campaign style and assumed that he would govern the same way. But to think that this in some way translates to an “unquestioning love”, a sort of homogenous across-the-board willingness to blindly follow our latest president, is to start believing the wingnut press releases. Does Josh Marshall think that Obama was really the most liberal man in the US Senate, just because National Journal said so? Of course not. So why does he assume every Obama supporter felt this way?

Let’s put it this way, A-list bloggers, you know how annoyed you get when some wingnutball starts blar-har-harring about “The One”? As if you yourself, savvy and worldly-wise blogger that you are, were no more than another worshipping O-bot in their eyes? That’s how annoyed I get when Hillary/Kucinich/Nader/Gus Hall supporters start crowing about how they were right, and we should have gone with Hillary/Kucinich/Nader/Gus Hall*.

If you want to re-fight the `08 Democratic Primary, over and over again, forever, like you live in some sort of political-nerd Valhalla, knock yourself out. But in the name of all-creatures-that-copulate, do not let it interfere with the effort to move ahead on progressive policies. If you have no suggestions or strategies to offer, perhaps you’d do better to seek out other venues through which to help than blogging.

I just think the effort would be better spent in finding ways to “Make Them Do It”.

Finally, when did Armando, or BTD, as he now refers to himself, stop “Speaking For Me Only”? And can he go back to doing that, please?

 

 

Hat tip to mithras.

Picture found here.

*Actually, most Gus Hall supporters were unfailingly polite and civil, except for one, who shall remain nameless.

Comments

[ntodd]

I just think the effort would be better spent in finding ways to “Make Them Do It”.

No, no, no!

[¡El Gato Negro!]

Your comment, she says "no no no", but your html link, she says "Make me do it".

[Bic]

Great post!

I posted a big excerpt and linked to it over at my humble little place.

Hope you don't mind.

[¡El Gato Negro!]

De nada.

[Bic]

Please consider swapping links. It seems we have a similar philosophical outlook.

Let me know.

bicmon at gmail dot com

Bic