There are some very smart and well-informed people who comment on the political life in this country, and they are neither confined nor exclusive to the more public, or mainstream environments.
In the media setting we could, for example, compare Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes with Lawrence O'Donnell and Chris Matthews. The former having grown through journalism and radio, while the other two are products of a Beltway education ... and it shows, more with Matthews, truth be told.
While those four, and many others, come into our living rooms almost daily, political wisdom is far from confined to that narrow sector of opinion.
For the sake of this exercise, I am excluding elected representatives, because they have a specific role in government, and I want to look at commentary.
Some years ago now Google launched a new platform called "Blogging". Outwith the mainstream, it was the first time that ordinary folk had a voice that was capable of being heard beyond a small circle of family and friends. Once the concept was established, a few folk took the idea and ran with it, probably in a way, and in a direction that the developers had never conceived when blogger.com was implemented.
After much debate, upset and some genuine insights, the broad-left of the US was left with just a few left-leaning, or Democratic inspired sites. The Huffington Post, Salon and Daily Kos are probably the three biggest. In the meantime some have come and gone, others remain active but smaller and a few have gone off into the weeds.
Of those "Big Three", Daily Kos is the only one where much of the content remains driven by community input. Not coincidentally it is also the one that hasn't completely sold its soul to either corporate interests, or heavy, centre-based community moderation. I am not going to suggest that Daily Kos is the best place to find breaking news, or independent journalism. What I would argue, however, is that it is the best place to find informed and intelligent commentary.
However, I am also, having been here for almost eight years, going to go further than that, but before I do it is going to be helpful to spend a moment looking at our opponents.
From a single Front Page article on RedState, I found these two comments. Please note that the second of them already has three "guest uprates":
As a political opposition, republicans are rendered practically impotent by the media's mere suggestion it's all due to race. Putin, OTOH, doesn't give a whit about B. Hussein's race. He sees him as a perfidious and pompous fool who thinks only in terms of his own image, and uses it as a very effective weapon against him.
And eating the fresh hearts and livers of newly killed Syrian soldiers!
Those comments, recommended by readers, are what passes for "political discussion" on one of the best-known right wing blogs.
If we dip further into the weeds we find the following ... I'll admit to not having to look very hard to find this, it is a "diary" on the front page of freerepublic. I'll quote the entire article (byte me), but leave out the truly offensive graphic:
If we trace backward along the red lines drawn by Dear Leader, a reason for his nonsensical behavior emerges. Has Barry been huffing his red marker? What else could be causing him to facilitate the worldwide ascendancy of fundamentalist Islam? Oh yeah, there is his ideology.
I'd be open to the criticism that
freerepublic doesn't represent conservative thought. I'd be open to it except that I see stuff like this on Facebook on a regular basis, posted and "liked" by people who simply should know better.
When I consider the level of discourse, not just by anonymous individuals but by folk who are known, people who go on camera, or get elected, when I consider their approach to debate .... Well my head explodes.
The Right Wing in this country, and I include virtually all Republicans, all Tea-Party types, and every Libertarian of the "Paul" persuasion (and some who are not), then it appears that the entirety of their political thought is a single ad homimen attack.
The United States Senate takes the blame, in the personage of Mitch McConnell. He was not alone but when he declared that the entire business of elected Republicans was to "stop the President", then he, and they, are responsible for everything that followed. They set the tone, then encouraged the aftermath. They are racist to the core and however much they doth protest, their ONLY problem with Barack Obama is that he is black. Dammit ... The man isn't even a liberal, but he's black and they are scared of changing demographics. Maybe they think that when white people are in the minority, they might be treated like we have treated people of color since the dawn of time.
For years now, what passes for discussion on the right, has been nothing more than a visceral hatred for a single, democratically elected President, who is black.
We wonder why they don't attack the substance of his proposals, God knows it's easy enough, but they don't. They can't, because broadly they agree with his proposals. Broadly they were Republican proposals just before the black guy proposed them!
Enough! I'm sick of them.
So I come here to Daily Kos. I could go to Salon, or HuffPo, or a number of others. Indeed, from time to time I read as widely as I can, but for discussion, insight and a great deal of amusement sometimes, I come here.
Here is where the President is criticized, sometimes fiercely and even on the Front Page, FOR HIS POLICIES.
Here is where Kossacks say "Obama sux ... because ..." and they give reasons.
Here is where folk are minded to "clap louder" not because of personality, or color, but because they can and do list his achievements.
That brings us back to the smart and informed people. They are here! They analyse, and I don't always agree with the analysis. They make suggestions, and I can find myself at variance there too. But what they do, and however messily they, and I, do it, there is a genuine attempt to improve America.
Not destroy a man, even if we sometimes cheer a bit too loudly for our champion (and primaries are coming ... ugh!), but to find solutions. We might get a bit testy, a tad too personal in our disagreements, but that's kind of the nature of the beast. We keep that under review and moderation is practised with a light touch. Some would like it a bit "heavier". No one would like HuffPO. So be careful what you wish for.
I see, in this country, a political immaturity that is without parallel in the western industrialised world. We refer to it as polarization, and other adjectives, but in reality it is born of ignorance and prejudice, whipped up by a craven political class who have little intention of righting it.
The good news is, that however much it annoys you when someone breaks the Don't be a dick rule, the fact remains that if you can look past that, you guys are in the vanguard of debate. You are the ones informed and informative.
By your willingness to make yourselves aware of your environments, your politicians and the issues in your own communities, then coming here and sharing, you are improving your country.
On what the right has dubbed "Patriots Day", there is no more patriotic act than that.
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