For years, Andrew Sullivan has been my favorite blogger. I’ve always thought him intelligent, even when...umm, wrong, but even in his earliest days (I just saw a Book TV interview with him as a very young man), he displayed a temperament and intelligence that spoke well of "conservative" ideology.
More recently, the last few years, I’ve watched his journey away from the Republican Party and what passes as "conservative" these days. Even when his audience was almost exclusively conservative, and increasingly hard-core, Sullivan bared his soul in ways that would not engender such readers to him. Purple band-aids come to mind.
I’m writing this diary, as the title implies, as a reflection of Sullivan’s documented journey as it applies to my own trails.
Over the fold...
On the hottest button of all, the abortion issue (Sullivan has always been staunchly pro-life), when Sullivan made a remark about late-term, partial-birth abortion, he found his dogma shoved right back into his face. Many readers wrote to him about their personal, terrible experiences during pregnancy, which required the use of this "absolute" evil – and Sullivan was a big enough man to admit openly that there were obviously sides of the abortion debate, events involving real people and real human suffering, to which he had not given enough weight:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.co...
He has even compiled a "round-up" of the heart-wrenching stories from his readers: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.co...
This is an intellectually honest man who simply couldn’t stand the intellectual dishonesty, shallowness and downright absurdity that has claimed the modern conservative movement, which he recently disavowed:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.co...
"I can't claim the same courage as these folks because I've always been fickle in partisan terms. To have supported Reagan and Bush and Clinton and Dole and Bush and Kerry and Obama suggests I never had a party to quit. I think that may be because I wasn't born here. I have no deep loyalty to either American party in my bones or family or background, and admire presidents from both parties. My partisanship remains solely British - I'm a loyal Tory. But my attachment to the Anglo-American conservative political tradition, as I understand it, is real and deep and the result of sincere reflection on the world as I see it. And I want that tradition to survive because I believe it is a vital complement to liberalism in sustaining the genius and wonder of the modern West.
For these reasons, I found it intolerable after 2003 to support the movement that goes by the name "conservative" in America."
I wrote my first diary here on DKos in June of 2008. Even then, I was beginning to become very uneasy with much of what I was reading on "the left." Note the title:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Just a sample: "To expect Obama or any candidate to step into this gigantic machinery and rewire it overnight is pipe-dream territory. Democrats hold slim majorities in Congress, but liberals certainly do not. Not even close, because while many Democrats are actually center or right of, no Republicans are left of center. None. Not one. Chafee was the last, as far as I can tell."
What I wanted, what I heard on the campaign trail, and what I’ve gotten, is pragmatism, and an attempt, futile as it seems on the surface, to represent all of America, an admission of the possibility that maybe, just maybe, the other side of the aisle has some valid points to make. Even in the face of mounting GOP idiocy, Obama holds to that promise.
But what about the rest of us, the base, the left, or whatever label someone might put upon us?
I was introduced to talk radio on 9-12-2001. Driving my son to school, I didn’t want to listen to music after the terrible events of the previous day. I happened upon 96.9 WTKK and some guy named Jay Severen. What I heard for the next 20 minutes (I simply couldn’t turn the dial, so shocked was I) was the most vile and hate-filled rhetoric directed at, not Bin Laden, but Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy. Since then, I have watched with horror this disease spread through the rank and file of the GOP, moving from fringe to mainstream in one of our two major political parties.
I have begun to fear that the left isn’t all that far behind.
Sullivan’s proclamation that he’s left the right brought echoes from the left, and following one of the links he posted from a reader response, I happened upon this:
http://virgilspeaks.blogspot.com/...
Why I'm Not a Liberal Anymore
Maybe the initial illuminating moment came when I learned that Tom Hayden, the anti-Vietnam war activist, had removed the Obama bumper sticker from his car. All I know is that I can hardly stand reading the Huffington Post these days. The stuff coming out of "progressive" mouths is all too often on a par with Glenn Beck's abusive rants--both sides (right and left wingers) playing thousand-pound national football with the President as the ball--meaning, kick kick kick, until you bust his dick
Which led me to this smelling heap of Severen-styled idiocy:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
Some choice bits of "reason" from Mr. Parenti: "To look strong in front of swing voters he will sacrifice the lives of hundreds of US soldiers; allow many more to be horribly maimed; waste a minimum of $30 billion in public money; and in the process kill many thousands of Afghan civilians."
"The real purpose of these 300,000 (sic) soldiers is to make Obama look tough as he heads toward the next US presidential election."
"Whatever the outcome, Obama has made it clear: he is willing to kill to get reelected."
Mr. Parenti, might I suggest that you return to your street corner with your dirty sign and dented tin cup? And on your way, slap yourself.
As awful as that stinking heap of flower vomit was, of course, the comments were even worse:
"I lost hope for Obama when he started off the healthcare talks by selling us out. He is not a leader, He is a follower.. Don't get me wrong, I know he has a lot of his plate, but he just don't seem to fight for anything. He just too darn wimpy to get anything done."
"Oh, he fights for what he wants. But if it doesn't directly benefit him, then, really, he couldn't be bothered."
"If Obama cared deeply about America and Americans he would not have done much of what he's done since he was inaugurated."
I could post a hundred of them. This is teabaggery, as far as I’m concerned – hyperbolic vitriol lacking in evidence, absent reason, and mired in a desperate need to somehow, somewhere focus frustration.
I’m seeing more and more of it on the left and from the left, and the talk show hosts who screech the loudest are being cheered the loudest, and the Congressmen who throw aside decorum and throw tantrums are getting lavished in praise and money from some on the left. The outrage creeps forward, the volume goes up a bit higher, the hyperbole and absolutism becomes just a bit more destructive – because, in the end, that’s what it surely will be.
I use as my canary in the coal mine, Ed Schultz. During the primaries, I bought a new car which came with a 6-month subscription to Sirius Satellite. I was a bit familiar with Air America, but Sirius didn’t offer it, instead hosting something called "Sirius Left." I listened a few times and got to know a few of the hosts, and of those I heard, the lone voice of sanity was Ed Schultz.
Lynn Samuels and Alex Bennett?
If you somehow managed to breed Eeyore, Piglet and Tigger (morose, manic and stupid), the result would be the twins, Lynn Samuels and Alex Bennett – mirror images of Jay Severen and, say, Michael Graham, equally as absolutist, intolerant, insulting and hyperbolic.
But Schultz was good. Very good, from what I heard. He was measured, reasonable and seemed well-schooled in the way of what is, not just ranting about what he wanted it to be.
No more. I’ve watched him often over these last weeks on MSNBC and he’s moving deeper and deeper into a cocoon of unreality and rigidity. Every night he’ll launch into a 3-minute rant about how health care is a mess and proclaim that the bad guys have won, then ask some self-serving poll question ("Has big insurance won the debate?") in order to get an 80-90%+ "yes" response from his increasingly insulated echo chamber.
He has on his show many reasonable guests – Jonathan Alter, Anthony Weiner, Howard Dean – who talk him down time and time again, telling him that "no, this is not a win for big insurance," and "yes, even though it’s not a home-run, it’s a strong bill in the right direction," and other such realistic assessments, and then Ed ignores them altogether and brings on his fire-breathers who break their podiums with pounding fists.
At first I thought it tactical in nature – the squeaky-wheel syndrome, if you will – and perhaps a necessary tactic to push the left-wing elements of Congress harder into the fight. But now it’s become more and more obvious to me that some of the best voices on the left – Schultz, Van den Heuvel and Greenwald, to name three – have fallen in love with the cheers. Words used to describe a President who has moved this ship of state more forcefully to the left, and in a time of great crises, than I ever believed possible range from "sell-out" to "murderer," and ridiculously equate him with George Bush.
I have no use for a left-wing equivalent of Fox News, or talk radio. I can tolerate the distortions and hyperbole on the left no more than those on the right. I’m all for measured criticism and alternative positions on escalating or withdrawing in Afghanistan, for example, but for those who would pretend that if we simply packed up and left tomorrow, the place would become some sanctuary for innocent Afghans, well, where is your evidence?
I’m all for stronger regulations on the financial sector, for progressive taxes on bonuses, for capping exec pay for companies that needed bailouts, etc., but for those who would pretend that our world, main street and the little guy, would have been better off if we had just let if all collapse, how so?
So am I "leaving the left"? Of course not. Somewhere in my high school years, I happened upon a 15+-year-old speech by John Kennedy which reflected perfectly the philosophy, the relationship of the individual to the state that I had come to believe. "...if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal.""
http://www.pbs.org/...
You can’t leave that which is in your heart.
However, were I a conservative, I would have "gone Sullivan" a long time ago, not because of any rejection of that which was in my heart, but because the cancer of half-informed idiocy, teeth-grinding anger and indecent vitriol has so gripped the "movement" that it has lost all semblance of reason and fact-based foundations. Once Morton Downey Jr. was a sideshow, a parody not unlike Archie Bunker, but now the Glenn Beckerheads have infected the GOP so thoroughly that even formerly reasonable Republicans have teabags hanging out of their mouths.
The left isn’t anywhere near that yet, thank God or the Flying Spaghetti Monster or whatever. But I see the train rolling. I used to think Richard Dawkins to be one of the most brilliant philosophers of our age (still do, actually), but now when I listen to him, I cringe as surely as if it’s Falwell yapping. His cocoon has grown tighter, his echo chamber louder, and his anger exponentially. Similarly, once a liberal voice of reason, Ed Schultz can hardly keep the spittle off his chin.
I don’t want a left-wing mirror of Fox News or talk-radio. I reject it as fully and furiously as I scramble to change the channel from Glenn Beck or Bill-o the Clown. I hold faith that the majority of Americans will gravitate toward reason and hope, and on that journey will hold tolerance for differing viewpoints and willingness to debate with an open mind and measured, civil discourse.
I thought long and hard about posting this. I know the comments will be split, and angry, and mini-brawls will break out down below.
But here’s my warning, and I think it important that many echo it (I know many have come to realize it): the GOP can’t beat us with ideas – they’ve known since the 60’s that their policies affect too few Americans positively to ever gain the majority (read Edith Ephron) – and so they’ve decided instead to try to control the message, even the "facts." Their worst nightmares are playing out before them in the form of liberal policies that will positively affect more and more Americans. They can’t return to power on the strength of their ideology or their ideas.
But they know they can brainwash a substantial portion of the electorate with thinly-veiled racism, conspiracy theories, incorrect information about higher taxes and death panels, and platitudes about "freedom" and "self-made men."
Thus, their return to power hinges on suppressing the hopes of the rest of us. They know that young voters are fickle voters, and they know that sausage-making is ugly, and that compromise is often painful. To have a chance at winning, they need to lower turn-out, and/or to splinter pieces of the base towards a Nader-like "visionary" who hasn’t a chance of ever winning a state, let alone an electoral victory.
So the next time a Republican hits you with "How’s that change working out for you?" instead of a knee-jerk reactionary insult aimed at George Bush (it’s just so damned easy, isn’t it?), think of the many comments you read here, at Huffpo or at any of the other sites on "our side" which refer to the President as a sell-out, a murderer or George Bush III; think of Ed Schultz calling the most sweeping revisions of health care in our lifetimes and the largest expansion of Medicare in 44 years as "no reform at all"; think of the Christian Paranti piece I linked above accusing President Barack Obama of murdering Afghans for votes.
Then replay in your mind the cheering zombie crowds of the last Sarah Palin book-signing, or consider the utter cluelessness that dominated the tea parties...
...and be very, very afraid.
Peace,
Bob
ps. For those who would now accuse me of asking them to abandon their principles or follow lock-step with President Obama or hold back any and all criticism, I insist that I am doing no such thing.
But for those who will rant that Obama is a sell-out, a murderer, etc., I can only pray that you are right-wing trolls, because the left, because our country, can ill afford such an infection at this dangerous time.