Ooops! This morning I checked Daily Kos and I realized that I haven't made a new diary in a full week.
Now ...
For the last four or five months, I have written a couple of diaries a day (or so it seems) and I even wrote them on vacation, from a computer in an Internet cafe in Spain.
During the last week or so, I've really drifted off. Yes, I'm still reading Daily Kos on my lunch and coffee breaks at work and I still check it in the morning before I get on the PATH train.
But it just seems like, during the last week, I have felt less the same sense of urgency that I was feeling before.
Haven't you been feeling the same thing?
I think that there are a couple of factors in this for me:
- Outrage fatigue. The Abu Ghraib torture scandal, the handover of Fallujah to Iraqi militias, the battles in Najaf and Karbala, the deposing of Chalabi as the U.S.'s favored leader ... Diarizing on these points wore me out. So much bad news and so much of it ... It all starts to sound the same after a while.
- Media coverage. The surprising fact that the media actually covered widely the Abu Ghraib scandal and subsequent events in Iraqi has made it seem less urgent to rush news to Daily Kos as it happens. If you can get it on CNN, what is the impetus to give it out here?
- Kerry in the lead. As Kerry assumes the leadership position in the race, there seems to be even less to say about him than before. I guess I could write a diary along the lines of, "Go Kerry!" It's tempting to write one critical of him, but I'm saving those until after we get him elected.
What this all adds up to is that I feel less impelled to dash off to Daily Kos when I have an idea and write up a couple hundred words on the themes of the day.
This is a pity.
And it's a bit dangerous.
Disinterest, lethargy and false confidence are our enemies in victory, as far as the November election is concerned. These things help an incumbent, but harm a challenger.
We've got to take time to replenish ourselves, certainly, but we've got to make sure we keep energized and keep engaged. As electronic activists, we've got to keep doing what we were doing when we were down, even though we're up.
John Ashcroft's press conference/campaign stop this week shows that the Bush administration is dead serious about using every advantage, legitimate or illegitimate, that they can to influence voters and win the election.
We can't afford complacency.
We're at a turning point here.
I'm coming back with a vengeance.