Can we get to a new and improved liberal blogosphere if we're "polite" about inconvenient truths?
This year's running of the quadrennial horse race exposed — to those who would notice — many flaws in the progressive blogosphere, some as surprising as they were disappointing: bullying groupthink, classism, misogyny, and disturbing appetites for stale rightwing baloney and newly minted Drudgian smears.
Overarching the whole experience was a cloud of truthiness, believing whatever it felt good to believe, facts-be-damned.
The Obama skeptic found her/himself in the Ron Suskind role, the nose-against-the-glass reality-based wonk who "just didn't get it," being read the latest edition of the Arthur Jensen speech.
Truthiness rots everything. And so the need for a better, truthiness-proof blogosphere transcends the Hillbama wars. Thus, it's tempting at this point, after a primary battle that Obama termed a "death march," to try to unharsh the mellow by talking past the late unpleasantness and the failings of the candidate it gave us, assuming that "us" is Democrats.
Sorry, but I'm not going to do that. I'm going to be gauche.
The urge to wipe the slate clean with the presidential campaign still in progress — and progressive leverage over either presumptive nominee apparently non-existent — is symptomatic of our species's hyperdeveloped, kneejerk impulse to "move on":
Years ago on “60 Minutes,” they did a segment about an ex-Nazi honcho who was living in NYC. They had people in a nearby bar saying things like “hasn’t he suffered enough?” though apparently the only suffering he seemed to have encountered was living in a city with a huge Jewish population and being unable to do anything about it.
Ditto for all the “let it go” crap we still hear about Florida 2000. Hundreds of thousands of people are dead or wounded because of that, but we’re supposed to let it go.
Let's acknowledge the elephant in the room, shall we?
Whether you think voting for Obama is the right thing to do or not, his candidacy doesn't bode particularly well for anyone who believes in or relies on progressive policies.
You want links with that? Even recent history alone backs this up, as he distances himself from everything his party stands for, such as separation of church and state, freedom from unwarranted surveillance, timely exit from unnecessary wars, fair sentencing, reproductive freedoms, and environmentalism.
Yet, everywhere you turn, someone well-meaning or otherwise is offering us a nice hot cup of "Get Over It."
One piping hot topic here this week was The First Black President's announcement that he's not a racist, and a look back at the smears that made such a statement all but necessary. It's just part of a long-running story where, as Avedon puts it, "Obama created a situation where he can't and won't brag on what's good about Democrats, and all that leaves is the stuff that does him (and Democrats) no good."
Doesn't that make you feel great about hitting the snooze button for eight years and talking around the suckitude of Obama's campaign and presidency-to-come? (Too bad the country is so avidly approving of the Republican Party that it's necessary for Obama to cave again and again on framing and issues.)
Throughout the campaign and perhaps especially now, countless very good bloggers and prominent Democrats have been swallowing at least some of the truth to help prop up Obama, for example defending him against charges of elitism, arrogance, and being insubstantial when he's quite obviously vulnerable on those points. Those vulnerabilities include calling those who don't prefer him bitter, xenophobic, god-clinging gun-nuts (and those are just the Democrats); taking a rudely superior tone with his opponent ("likable enough" and the dandruff and finger gestures); and running on a platform of content-free platitudes about his "movement" of "hope" and "change" and spending his entire career running for the next job.
Do we really want to be gnashing our teeth in fauxtrage about such topics? Is that why we're here? It's not like there's a shortage of legitimate complaints about McCain, y'know.
If a PB2.0 is to rise from the ashes of PB1.0, we're going to have to say no to truthiness and yes to inconvenient truths, rising above the culture of "move on."
And with that, the floor is now open for your thoughts about building a better blogosphere!