Sunday, December 19, 2004
The Fifty-One Percent Club
I'm a little perplexed right now regarding what to do with this space. My lack of writing hasn't been due to lack of things to be outraged about... if anything, there are too many things worth writing about. The problem is that the Republicans currently in power quite frankly couldn't give a damn about anything that I or other liberals are saying right now, and with the victory Bush and the Republicans in Congress got in November, they don't have to.
Perhaps for that reason I've been more drawn to some of the more left-ish conservative blogs rather than the more extreme liberal ones lately. I may agree with more in the liberal blogs, but quite frankly, does it matter? A post like this on a conservative's blog matters infinitely more (to the extent that anything on a blog actually matters at all) than any well-thought out post on Eschaton. The reason? The conservative blogger is part of the 51%, he's part of the club, he's in. The real battle over the next two years, if you want to call it that, isn't going to be between left and right - that one was won and lost last month (and apparently no one cares about the margin of victory). It's going to be between far-right and center-right, and it's guys like the one writing that post against book-banning that are really our best hope. That sounds awfully glum, having to root for some random conservative for the absurd reason that he's against banning books, and perhaps it is, but I don't see the alternative. You could organize a protest march of a million liberals, akin to what happened in New York during the Republican National Convention, or all around the world during anti-war rallies, and nobody currently in power cares. The people protesting are just foolish hippies, or quasi-socialists, or doing it because they "hate America". It seems the only way you can hope to be listened to is if you're part of the 51% Club. So at the moment I'm left with few ideas other than sitting back and watching, hoping that our closest allies in that club have enough firepower to make things as minimally bad as possible.
Perhaps for that reason I've been more drawn to some of the more left-ish conservative blogs rather than the more extreme liberal ones lately. I may agree with more in the liberal blogs, but quite frankly, does it matter? A post like this on a conservative's blog matters infinitely more (to the extent that anything on a blog actually matters at all) than any well-thought out post on Eschaton. The reason? The conservative blogger is part of the 51%, he's part of the club, he's in. The real battle over the next two years, if you want to call it that, isn't going to be between left and right - that one was won and lost last month (and apparently no one cares about the margin of victory). It's going to be between far-right and center-right, and it's guys like the one writing that post against book-banning that are really our best hope. That sounds awfully glum, having to root for some random conservative for the absurd reason that he's against banning books, and perhaps it is, but I don't see the alternative. You could organize a protest march of a million liberals, akin to what happened in New York during the Republican National Convention, or all around the world during anti-war rallies, and nobody currently in power cares. The people protesting are just foolish hippies, or quasi-socialists, or doing it because they "hate America". It seems the only way you can hope to be listened to is if you're part of the 51% Club. So at the moment I'm left with few ideas other than sitting back and watching, hoping that our closest allies in that club have enough firepower to make things as minimally bad as possible.
