Looks like the far left of the blogosphere has decided to start lynching everyone in the Democratic party who thinks differently from them including Joe Lieberman, Richard Cohen, Carl Pope, and Johnathan Chait just to name a few. Why? For thinking differently. Hey, wait a minute! Isn't that what they accuse the far right of doing? Yep.
First the evidence:
Exhibit A
Digital Lynch Mob
Two weeks ago I wrote about Al Gore's new movie on global warming. I liked the film. In response, I instantly got more than 1,000 e-mails, most of them praising Gore, some calling him the usual names and some concluding there was no such thing as global warming, if only because Gore said there was. I put the messages aside for a slow day, when I would answer them. Then I wrote about Stephen Colbert and his unfunny performance at the White House correspondents' dinner.
Kapow! Within a day, I got more than 2,000 e-mails. A day later, I got 1,000 more. By the fourth day, the number had reached 3,499 -- a figure that does not include the usual offers of nubile Russian women or loot from African dictators. The Colbert messages began with Patrick Manley ("You wouldn't know funny if it slapped you in the face") and ended with Ron ("Colbert ROCKS, you MURDER") who was so proud of his thought that he copied countless others. Ron,
you're a genius.
(snip)
It seemed that most of my correspondents had been egged on to write me by various blogs. In response, they smartly assembled into a digital lynch mob and went roaring after me. If I did not like Colbert, I must like Bush. If I write for The Post, I must be a mainstream media warmonger. If I was over a certain age -- which I am -- I am simply out of it, wherever "it" may be. All in all, I was -- I am, and I guess I remain -- the worthy object of ignorant, false and downright idiotic vituperation.
(more snippage)
But the message in this case truly is the medium. The e-mails pulse in my queue, emanating raw hatred. This spells trouble -- not for Bush or, in 2008, the next GOP presidential candidate, but for Democrats. The anger festering on the Democratic left will be taken out on the Democratic middle. (Watch out, Hillary!) I have seen this anger before -- back in the Vietnam War era. That's when the antiwar wing of the Democratic Party helped elect Richard Nixon. In this way, they managed to prolong the very war they so hated.
The hatred is back. I know it's only words now appearing on my computer screen, but the words are so angry, so roiled with rage, that they are the functional equivalent of rocks once so furiously hurled during antiwar demonstrations. I can appreciate some of it. Institution after institution failed America -- the presidency, Congress and the press. They all endorsed a war to rid Iraq of what it did not have. Now, though, that gullibility is being matched by war critics who are so hyped on their own sanctimony that they will obliterate distinctions, punishing their friends for apostasy and, by so doing, aiding their enemies. If that's going to be the case, then Iraq is a war its critics will lose twice -- once because they couldn't stop it and once more at the polls.
Exhibit B
The Left Vs Joe Liebermanby Johnathan Chait
But lots of Democrats supported the Iraq war initially and believe now that we can and must win. Moderates such as Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton say this all the time. But you don't see anybody trying to oust them.
Watching the left wing of the Democratic Party trying to take down Joe Lieberman has been a deeply confusing experience for me. The lefties say the Democratic senator from Connecticut is a self-righteous suck-up who lends President Bush undeserved credibility. Lieberman's allies say the lefties are a pack of crazed, ignorant ideological cannibals.
They're both basically right. So how am I supposed to deal with this?
In Connecticut, Ned Lamont has attracted press coverage by waging an unusual primary campaign to oust Lieberman. Lieberman's friends insist that he's in trouble because he supports the Iraq war. ("What is his great apostasy? He strongly believes that we cannot afford to lose in Iraq," writes Marshall Wittmann of the Democratic Leadership Council.)
Exhibit CBloggers and Sierra Club members flaming Carl Pope
Hat Tip to GreenGop
Exhibit D
Hopefully this is the last thing I have to say about left-wing bloggers for a while. Some people out there seem to think I'm saying that lefty bloggers shouldn't "be mean to me," or shouldn't disagree at all with people who are on their side of the political spectrum. I'm not saying that at all. TNR disagrees sharply with other liberals when they do or say something we disagree with, and I expect the same treatment from them. I like argument. I like nastiness and sarcasm, though I have a low opinion of the witless, fourth-grade name-calling style that doesn't even bother to make arguments.
My complaint with the way lefty blogs like Daily Kos, Atrios, and others treat the center-left is twofold. First, when you imply or state that organizations like the Democratic Leadership Council or TNR are mostly supportive of the Bush administration, you've moved beyond criticism to outright dishonesty. And second, when you imply or state that everybody associated with those organizations has identical motivations, or that they harbor some hidden motive (corporate lackeys, right-wing paymasters, etc.) you've moved beyond dishonesty into paranoia.
--Jonathan Chait
The recently outlined Democratic agenda points to their pandering to radicals of their party. Its all about undoing the past five years and taking revenge. Pelosi effectively wants to start an arson investigation while the building is still burning. And that's not going to sway the moderate, independent, and swing voters that the Dems need to take back the house and/or the senate. This may be a case of Its the squeaky wheel that gets the grease syndrome.
Whether or not they realize it the far left needs Lieberman. They need him in the Senate alot more than they need him writing a book called "Its my Party Two" while a moderate Republican sits in his seat. They need every moderate they can get to pull off a takeover of the house and/or senate. Heck they may even need a RINO defection or two. Now I can't recall the moderate/centrist blogger who said it it but it roughly went like this:
Moderate message to the DNC
There is no road to power except through us.
There is no road to power except through us.
There is no road to power except through us.
There is no road to power except through us.
Maybe Pelosi is starting to get the message. We'll know in November.
What other blogs have to say:
The Bull MooseKarl Rove Invented the Internet
The Moose avers that Karl Rove is more devious than you thought.
Increasingly, the Moose is of the opinion that the only thing that it is going well for the Republicans is the left wing blogosphere. Ultimately, it may be the GOP's saving grace.
As much as there is an ideology of the netroots it is that raw partisan polarized politics is the path to power...
Done With Mirrors
Democrats: We Come In Peace
Oh, well, we might have said "impeachment," but we didn't mean "impeachment." No, no, no, not us. In fact, I'm not even sure we said "impeachment" the other day. It was "in peace meant." As in, "we come in peace."
Pelosi gets a little smart and takes a step back from her fellow partisans who are oiling their knives for Bush and Cheney's impeachment after the (presumptive) Democratic sweep this fall....
Donkelphant
Digital Lynch Mob
WaPo columnist Richard Cohen, an amiable, tweedy old liberal with warm fuzzy memories of the ’60s, gets roughed up by the digital lynch mob over his disapproving comment on Stephen Colbert. Yes, it’s the left’s lynch mob, once again purifying its ranks and thinning its chances of really claiming a long-term hold on governance via democracy.....
The Gun Toting Liberal (He's pissed)
Radicalism in the “lefty” bloggosphere? DUH!
Yep, this one gets filed under “DUH!“, folks. Apparently, this is the newest argument going on in the bloggosphere today, and I cannot believe anybody can defend a claim that the left side of the bloggosphere is not inclusive to the non-radical lefty brothers and sisters who are obviously left of center, but to the right of socialism.
Case in point: read MY blog. I do not think anybody in their damned right minds can make a claim that this is a conservative blog. It’s “conservative” because I believe in the Right To Keep And Bear Arms and I believe in strong border security? GET REAL. Do a simple Google search to become astonished at all of the liberal politicians who believe in the preservation of the 2nd Amendment, including that so-called, far-left wacko Senator by the name of Russ Feingold, whom I hope and I PRAY will become our next President of the United States of America. Take a look at all of the polls out there that say over 80% of ALL Americans favor tough border enforcement, and folks, 80-90% of America OBVIOUSLY includes a whole helluvalot of Liberals.....
The Recovering DemocratLiberals Attack Richard Cohen
Blogs for Bush
A Liberal Figures it Out
I could have told Cohen this a while back ago, when the same sort of people were urging that I be hung with a meat-hook from a lamp post. There is a lot of hatred out there - and allow me to explain.
Conservatism has at its root an understanding of the fallen nature of mankind - whether one believe in the Judeo-Christian theology about this or one just recognises the perversity seemingly inherent in human nature, the conservative just knows that men can be bad - and thus men have to be carefully circumscribed in their actions lest society disintegrate. Liberalism has as its root the concept of amelioration - change the facts of a man's life, and you will change the man. I hold this to be incorrect, but it is at least a rational and arguable position that if we, say, lift a man out of poverty he will rise to the heights. Leftism has as its root pure, unadulterated hatred....
Hat Tip to Basil's blog for pointing me to TGTL's original post that got the ball rolling on this post.
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