Posted on 07/16/2005 5:01:08 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
I happen to believe that politics is circular. There comes a point when the extreme left and extreme right meet each other and more or less conglomerate into one big mess of extremism. In Internet community terms, consider the similarities in behavior between Democratic Underground and Free Republic. I think you'll find, if this is true, that there's a point where actually the ideologies are the furthest apart. When you have mainstream political debate pushing towards those points, not the farthest to the extreme mind you, that's when you have real divisiveness.
You have the MoveOn.org/Daily Kos crowd on the left, and you have the Christian Coalition/The American Cause crowd on the right. They are all cannibals of some sort, though I must admit that MoveOn.org is pretty good about not ripping into other Democratic candidates, and they represent basically the "mainstream extremes," which is to say that they represent those points of view that are diametrically opposed to one another and, in circular politics, are the most distant.
We have a lot of folks who are subscribing to those kinds of opinions these days, and so politics appears more shrill and divisive - perhaps moreso than it has ever been before. Could Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill be friendly after 5 PM in the political world of 2005?
Ask yourself this - could George W. Bush and Nancy Pelosi, were she Speaker of the House? I seem to find it unlikely; not because Bush hates Pelosi, but because Pelosi seems to genuinely dislike the President, and the President's supporters would rip him to shreds were he to befriend a San Francisco liberal like Pelosi.
For a long time, politics really did exist mostly in the mainstream. The candidates always seem to be somewhere near the center, where most politics takes place at least in the Beltway. Their supporters, however, used to come from wide swaths of the population. They were not extremists.
That has begun to change. Extremists are going to the polls and voting in primaries for candidates who, in previous years, might not have ever received the time of day. Truly, what business does US Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin have in running for President in 2008? A divorcee and unabashed liberal, in previous elections he wouldn't be able to raise any money, or maybe even get on ballots. But in 2008, he might have a legitimate shot at the nomination - not because the time is right for his ideas, but because the time is right for extremists to get another nominee in the mold of George McGovern in 1972.
Republicans have the same problem. Will they nominate someone like US Sens. Sam Brownback of Kansas or Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania? Both could be considered mainstream extremists of the Free Republic variety, though Brownback has the ability, unlike Santorum, to think before he speaks. What of Tom Tancredo, a militant opponent to illegal immigration? No other candidate is likely to take up his cause in 2008, and he may stick with it Pat Buchanan-style up until the nomination, then give a rousing, and probably offensive, speech to the party convention.
Could 2008 be a matchup between Democratic Underground and Free Republic? No, probably not. But it may be a matchup between Daily Kos and the Christian Coalition, trading barbs about who is evil rather than who is best for America.
For the sake of our country, we have to take politics back from the extremists who can be found lurking behind the scenes, agitating and causing the degradation of our political culture. It's not a coincidence that things have gotten so bad in Washington over the past decade. New, alternative media like blogs and talk radio have given extremists on both sides an opportunity to be heard loudly.
When professional writers comment about the "echo chamber" of blogs, they are usually trying to snipe at one particular blog or another where it's suggested that there is no difference of opinion. These are usually Republican blogs since, as everyone knows, there is less disagreement and dissent on the surface within Republican communities. But let me make the statement, quite authoritatively in fact, that the true echo chamber exists within the blog community itself.
In the blog community as a whole, profanity and extremism are considered the norm. RedState.org is a fine example of keeping politics respectful and professional, by and large, and it ought to be commended for doing so. On the left, MyDD is my favorite blog, replacing TPM Cafe which I can no longer use due to my new Mac causing display issues with posts, because they too tend to forego much of the extremist, profane, and offensive banter.
We ought to be doing more to try to make the mainstream media realize that Daily Kos, Free Republic, and Democratic Underground do not speak for us, at large, as bloggers. The fact that Markos Moulitsas was invited to the FEC to speak about the freedom of bloggers, along with RedState's own Mike Krempasky, shows that he is considered one of the more prominent bloggers on the web. Why we, as members of the larger blog community, have allowed ourselves to be linked with this man of questionable decency, I do not know.
What's the latest on Schumer's bill to silence conservative blogs as "free ads for Republicans"?
BTTT
Ditto that.
Perhaps the greatest difference between the RATS who inhabit the Underground and FReepers is that, no matter who is in the White House, we want our nation to win and the economy to roll along. It has been clear for some time that, if they cannot be in power, they want this nation to fail.
Apparently we're " mainstream extremists "
"we have to take politics back from the extremists who can be found lurking behind the scenes, agitating and causing the degradation of our political culture".
In other words, "stop rocking the boat. All us oldtimers had a good thing going on here in Washington until folks started to pay attention. Man, I hate that danged internet"
"There comes a point when the extreme left and extreme right meet each other and more or less conglomerate into one big mess of extremism."
That much I agree with but "extremist" FR ain't. A quick look at any thread involving illegal immigration, CAFTA, marijuana legalization, etc shows a pretty varied range of political thought. That range of thought isn't exactly a hallmark of extremism.
Send him a copy of the posting rules and then ask that he publically apologise. If he doesn't I'll post a thread ripping the %^$*#*#(@(@)#)!
blog blog blog....same old thing
So...vapid mindless politics is good and communism is the equivalent of freedom and liberty. I see. Glad that's been cleared up.
Aw heck! I was shrill and divisive before I registered on FR!!! Eight years of Bill Clinton did that to me! :)
"It has been clear for some time that, if they cannot be in power, they want this nation to fail."
I respectfully disagree. Look at those here who want the republican party to fail, thus letting the democrats win causing this nation to fail. There are extreme factions on both sides of the aisle, but conservatives are eating their own, while in general, democrats are binding in unity under the extremism tag. Instead of conservatives banding together, we are perceived as disfunction, and not united towards the common goal of defeating liberalism. Why is that perception there? Possibly because it's true, the media gloms onto any conservative idea which disagrees within.
"There comes a point when the extreme left and extreme right meet each other and more or less conglomerate into one big mess of extremism."
There's a Hegel synthesis in there, ain't there?
There comes a point when the extreme left and extreme right meet each other and more or less conglomerate into one big mess of extremism.
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I would generally disagree in that there is so much difference between the radical left, their agenda versus the true Constitutional conservatives who want to keep America as it had always been since the founders cast it and its precious documents. They are SO DIAMETRIC (hard socialism versus true conservatism) I cannot even conceptually see how they could approach each other...
Victor Davis Hanson on with Hugh Hewitt this past Thursday said that American politics today resembles the politics of Rome in its latter days -- too many politicians motivated by vindictiveness rather than the welfare of the republic.
Tim Saler, youre an idiot.. FR is NOT a blog... and DU is a manure pond, imo.
I guess the Founding Fathers would qualify as 'extremists', these days. Oh, well.
Idiots aren't born, they are created, and most of them have blogs today.
Our misfortune. lol
Salyer should understand that the only reason the views expressed by most on Freeerepubic are "extreme" is that the extreme left, which of course is represented by the main stream media, characterizes them as extreme.
I think he just added F.R for balance.
I read P.J's "DUmmie Funnies", I never see the equivelant moonbattery over here.
And did Dhimmi Underground ever accomplish anything,like expose fraudulent documents, such as was done in a matter of hours by Buckhead?
I think not.
Wow, we're "cannibals" now.
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