I can no longer stand to read my local paper, the Washington Post, Politico or any of the other mostly, I've come to realize, republican media. I can only stomach Daily Kos, TPM, Huff Post and a few others. This reminds me of when I first started reading MyDD back in 2001 [NOTE: THE NICE PEOPLE IN THE UNREALITY BASED COMMUNITY GLEEFULLY POINTED OUT THAT MY ORIGINAL REFERENCE TO READING KOS IN 2000 WAS IMPOSSIBLE, SO I CORRECTED I WAS READING MYDD DURING RECOUNT], after Gore lost and my wife and I were stuck in South Florida watching the unfolding of an absurd tragicomedy that no one in the newspapers in TV was covering. MyDD was. Later on so was Daily Kos and others. They were speaking the truth.
So, today, with the ascension of people like Rand Paul, I need the same type of fearless, honest writing more than ever. And, unfortunately, what I'm seeing too often is a lack of writing about the new reality on Daily Kos and many other progressive sites.
Remember when we proudly adopted the moniker "reality-based community" -- after Rove's strange use of it in response to our insistence of getting the actual facts out (as opposed to myths they spun, like WMD). I see people on Kos now running away from reality posting gotcha diary after gotcha diary about the political hypocrisy of the GOP that is picked up no where else and fierce battles where fans to the President refuse to accept any criticism of him, and instead state what they think the reality should be -- that President Obama be universally admired for his many legislative accomplishments. I don't see diaries about the new reality we're facing -- how we're getting our asses kicked by a huge GOP message, media machine. I don't see stories about how to address that. I see us talking to ourselves about how things should be, rather than how things are.
To me, the recent diary by the guys from Blue Jersey -- who are doing heroic work -- about how Chris Cristie was going down exemplified this trend. I follow New Jersey politics closely because I have spent many summers there and worked in politics there. I love New Jersey and Blue Jersey.
But, I could not understand why a diary about Cristie did not mention the perplexing reality we're facing that his approval rating keep on climbing up (over the 50s) despite the fact that the guy is going around firing teachers. Despite the fact that he is the governor of what should be a blue state That's why he's on all the shows. Not a peep about his numbers. Not a thought about why this is happening or what we need to do to change things.
Similarly, I am flummoxed by the many Obama denialists here. I don't deny that Obama has done many great things. But, I think it is pretty clear that his political efforts have failed. Why? Maybe it is not his fault. But, clearly it is not Mike Lux's or the professional left's fault. Me, I think it is probably because the GOP's been kicking his ass for two years abut I'm open to other suggestions based on data and a hard nosed analysis of what is happening. The kind of diaries I used to find here.
Instead I find cheerleading diaries and gotcha stories that don't get anybody. But, I keep on coming because I have no where else to go except TPM and because I find Kos and the others can still bring it. But, I really wish our community would wake up to the reality we find our selves in. We lost the battle and may lose the war. And, the consequences could be terrible. And, the answer is to not just go out and canvass. That is important but it won't be enough if we can't change the narrative. We did it before and we can do it again. We need to keep on innovating and finding new ways to wake people and the media up. Not to keep on talking to ourselves and hope that will change things.