Every morning, I get my cup of coffee and an English muffin, sit down and read all of the major newspapers I can that have an electronic edition. After that, I log on to Daily Kos and see what is happening in the blogosphere. The past couple of months I have been absolutely disgusted by what I have seen. Some of the half-cocked, ridiculous theories that have graced the diaries here have been laughable. At times I forget that I am reading a left leaning political blog and I think that I have stepped into the world of Art Bell and his aliens and sun spots.
All of that I can pretty much ignore. It's troubling, but nothing to get too worked up about. What really gets me is this: Today I opened up the first diary written by Paul Hackett. The comments after his post were appalling. First off, some people questioned if he was who he said he was and then some people asked if it was really him who was doing the posting. This merely illustrates a pattern that has become increasingly prevalent since the past election. Bloggers and their posters have begun to think of themselves as all important and the end-all, be-all for winning a political campaign. They have yet to realize that if they continue on their current path they will end up more like a Linda Tripp or an Ollie North, a flash in the pan in the political kitchen.
So what if the candidate himself doesn't post something? Why do you need to even ask the question? I have read the past few weeks some "rules for political candidates" when posting to blogs. It required them to sit there for a half an hour and wait for people to start posting comments. It required the candidate to post him- or herself and not have an aide post it for them. To me, this is stupid and narcissistic on the part of some of the people involved here. If you really expect a progressive candidate to win an election you can't expect that candidate to sit in front of a computer and kiss your collective asses for 30 minutes, just so you can feel important.
It is time to grow up everybody. Realize that blogs can play an important role in the online political process, but outside of that they have very little effect (with of course the exception of fundraising, which would be a great place for bloggers to focus their energy on.) The entire blogosphere was in love with Howard Dean for President, and in the end he flamed out because he mistook excitement for his candidacy on the internet for actual votes in Iowa.
This also brings me to something else. Just because someone votes for something you don't agree with, it doesn't make them a traitor to the party. The recent shunning of Melissa Bean is ill advised and a great way to make sure the GOP keeps control of Washington D.C. Rep. Bean represents one of the most conservative districts in Illinois, so she probably doesn't vote like Dennis Kucinich 100% of the time (not that his voting record is bad either!) She is allowed to have a mind of her own, and is allowed to vote the way she feels like she should vote--the way the voters of the 8th congressional district of Illinois would want her to vote. Mason Cooley said: "The absolute has moved into the fortress of the absurd." Nowhere is this truer than on left leaning political blogs today. Absolute perfection only leads us to a tighter GOP control of the halls of power. Democrats come in all shapes and sizes. Let us understand that and treat people as such.
We should all be working together, not tearing everyone apart.