Thursday, March 09, 2006

Perspective

The Meet the Bloggers donnybrook has netted, by my count, two posts on Law Dork, plus one each on Buckeye State, Heightsmom, Word of Mouth, and here, plus a largely unique Russo post on BFD, and at least three other posts on BFD highlighting the above and double-digit comments everywhere.

After reading the B-State post I scrolled down and learned from an earlier post that Republicans have proposed limiting workers comp eligibility and are cynically using the bill to dilute support for the minimum wage ballot issue. That post got all of one comment and, as far as I can tell through Technorati, no links.

We have a tendency on the left to fight for ideological purity first and good politics last. Its what Todd Gitlin famously called “Marching on the English Department while the Right took the White House." All of which has led to a three decades on the receiving end of an escalating series of ass-kickings.

Chris Geidner lobbing Animal Farm accusations at Meet the Bloggers runs along the same lines. It’s all about calling out perceived violations of some perfect ideal of internet populism while our real adversaries seek to rob working people again. Maybe someday we will learn.

Note: This and the post below have been edited to correct the spelling of Chris's last name.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

a-m-e-n! republicans will take responsibility for "raising the minimum wage" -- to the national floor -- while cutting worker's comp.

so, first republicans get caught with their hands in the bwc cookie jar. then they punish injured workers by cutting their benefits. bastards.

then there's the bush admin raiding the civil pension system to avoid hitting the debt ceiling -- the same week bush continued his push for tax cuts. it's not a tax cut if you don't have the money in the first place! bastards.

then there's the on-going republican assault on local control. in the past four years, ohio communities have lost the right to control mega-farm siting, natural gas drilling, coal mining, and now, if republicans get their way, aggregate mining and concealed handguns. bastards.

i have no problem with the ongoing "discussions" about the heart and soul of our party. we need that. it's a good thing. but i do have a problem with our lack of equal anger over the blatant fucked-up-ness of republican policies in ohio.

FamineHorse said...

Pho-- dead solid perfect post.

54cermak said...

Bryan, don't forget the loss of local control over residency laws and soon, limestone quarries.

Its hard to keep up sometimes!

Anonymous said...

I had my first real looksie at local and state blogs several weeks ago. Found some threads about this contretemps... Couldn't get a firm grasp on what happened, why it caused such outrage in the ``community'' (aside here -- one of my beefs with many blogs is that there is way too much inside stuff -- too little context...) But understood enuff to scratch my head over why this dust-up had become so headline grabbing.

Anonymous said...

I completely agree with what you’re saying, Pho. But I think I know why this is. Most of the people reading these blogs agree on the policy issues. No one is going to comment on a post that says that the minimum wage needs increased. Most readers agree. But when you start talking about Hackett v. Brown or (the ultimate comment getter) Tim Russo, then the comments start flowing. There is disagreement on those topics. I’m sure if you posted: Troops in Iraq: when should they come home? or : Filibustering presidential nominees, what do you think? you would get quite a few policy-oriented posts. AND, those posts would educate us Democrats on where there might be tension within our own party and therby suggest ways of dealing with those internal divisions. I don't know...just some thoughts.

Anonymous said...

i agree w/ nab4se (oddly enough). it really is about tension and conflict in the blogospheres.

i think what it points to is a much deeper problem -- the lack of truly BIG ideas on our side of the fence. ideas that match the enormous problems facing us as a nation. post those and the comments will fly.

Anonymous said...

Just learn to spell my name right:

G-E-I-D-N-E-R.

Otherwise, you cool. :)

Scott Piepho said...

Spelling corrected. My apologies, Chris.

Unknown said...

I wrote about the attempt to raise the minimum wage on Liberal Common Sense on Wednesday, some of us are still out there focusing on the issues rather than the interpersonal drama.

On Wednesday as well Ohio Republicans agreed to support a change U.S. Constitution to allow only "citizens" instead of "persons" to be counted when figuring congressional representation.

This democrat on democrat thing happens way too often and not just on the blogs. On a local message board I frequent things turned nasty over two democratic candidates for a County position with rumors and insults being thrown back and forth that are only going to hurt both candidates. So while I don't think anyone should not write what they feel, I think people should remember that there might want to be just a tad more caution used.

I don't mean to be snarky, but it amazes me how many blog posts end up being written about these blogdramas. First we have the initial one that causes it all, then all the resulting sides weigh in on how they agree or disagree then we have posts like this one where someone sometimes more than just one gives their perspective and the advice to move on.

I'd suggest just not making a huge deal about the first blogdrama event or at least dealing with it on that blog rather than the myriad of posts about the post about the post. If this stuff really isn't that important in the larger scope (which to me it isn't) then not making it a focus seems to be the way to go.