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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2009-04-24

To Clarify . . . 

No, don't cry me a river.

Last night's post should BY NO MEANS be construed to be a pity party or anything like it. This is the life I made for myself, and it's generally pretty good. Besides, as my friend the Captain is fond of pointing out, this is what I get for living life on the public dole (as a teacher). Make no mistake: it was still a shameless plug for a job. Just not one that anybody should read too much into.

My point was threefold: one, I don't come home at the end of the day from my work and dinner party to an empty studio apartment from which I can kill two hours in a diatribe before nodding off for a good nights' rest, like 80% of the people at HuffPo. And in all the meetings I've had with Conservative bloggers, it occurs to me that most all do this out of passion at some silly time of day after taking care of our kids and houses and families, while the people we argue against are able to make it a promint feature of their lives. Luckily, the righty bloggers I've met are really smart, smart people, so they're able to make an argument concisely and effectively. Unfortunately, then they turn off their computers and return to their lives, while the people we argue against spend the next few hours arguing over our point, often flat-out lying to whoever will listen to them, and by the time we get back to the computer, the argument has moved on. It's frustrating.

Two, this is a great hobby which is NOT changing the world right now because even the Republican establishment has tuned out the right blogosphere. If what I think I heard is right, some 80% of the Washington political class "Did not Approve" of the Tax-Day Tea Parties--that means that (presumably) 60% of the elected Republicans ignored the Tea Parties. And John McCain became our nominee this year after making a career of ignoring the will of the Right. And the first bailout passed with like 95% of the Congressional vote, even though 70% of Americans polled disapproved. There was a moment when the right side of the blogosphere was relevant (roughly the last time the Republican Party was relevant), and that reached it's high point with Rathergate. Since then, us rabble-rousers have been ignored by our side, while the other side has been emboldened and effective. So I'm here shouting into the wind when I could be using that energy for things that actually will change my children's lives, if only their own little lives.

And three, the Left--as it always does, saw Rathergate and then co-opted the whole idea. But they added funding to the whole mix, and so things like MoveOn and ProgressNow are able to fight this battle the way it needs to be fought, while we look like amateurs (okay, sure I'm still holding on to my status for the 2012 Olympics, but people like Ben and Joshua deserve to go pro). Where are the mechanisms on the Right to fight this war? Where are your Mitt Romneys and your Bruce Willises trying to change the world in their little way by supporting the grassroots? Even the media is tough: the so-called "Right Wing" Fox News isn't right-wing, it's just balanced. But when ABC, CNN, NBC are now openly Leftists, Fox looks out of place, and the disadvantage is permanently in place.

At any rate, the bottom line is this: I haven't been blogging much lately because there are better ways to spend my time, unfortunately. And that, I think, is probably exactly how the forces of the Left want me--and the rest of the grassroots--to feel.
Posted by: Michael / 4/24/2009 01:49:00 PM

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