The saga of the blogger meltdown at Edwards HQ has taken a turn for the worse. Token street cred blogger #2 has now exited the building, causing much consternation among the rest of the blog world. In multiple posts ([1], [2]) the lads at MyDD have taken great umbrage to all the apologising, including that by Democratic candidates. Why cannot politics imitate the normalcy of the blog world, they bemoan! Digging deep into Greek etymology, Chris Bowers writes:
If you go back far enough, the etymology of the word "politics" derives from the Greek word polis, which simultaneously refers to a city and a sovereign governing body. It is in this way that politics can thus be seen not just as governance, but as the inevitable process of creating a means of working out relationships between a group of people who decide to live together. It is thus bitterly ironic that a process that is, at its deepest root, about finding ways for people to live together has become infested with utterly inhuman expectations and behavioral norms.
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When we attack people for going off message, for not being 100% consistent with everything they have said in the past, or for saying something that others could potentially construe as offensive, we are attacking people for doing what pretty much everyone in the entire country does as a matter of course in our daily lives. We all do it, yet somehow in our contemporary political and media world we are eager to crucify people who do so in public.
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People think that most politicians don't say anything meaningful because, well, most don't say anything meaningful for fear of going off message, contradicting themselves at some point down the road, or pissing anyone off.
Now these are the young gents who disdain all "single issues" in favour of electing Democrats. And as the Google-bombing and the colourful opinions demonstrate, tactics are the means to that end. We have therefore, Jerome Armstrong (of MyDD -- one of the big boobs?!), "live blogging" at the DNC meeting covering presidential candidates:
Kucinich: I lost all respect for Kucinich when told his Iowa supporters to caucus for Edwards the day before the caucus, and then went on to be contest the entire primary season. Kucinich lets you know he's married, and has mentioned his wife's name Elizabeth over a dozen times in his speech. Yea, he's mostly been right about Iraq, but this is a vanity candidate that doesn't deserve a second chance. At least he didn't segue into singing poetry like he did at the CA Democratic convention in '03.
Kucinich of course being the only candidate (and perhaps only member of Congress) who says meaningful things without worrying about "going off message". Compare against Obama with his "awesome God", Edwards on Iran, Hillary on pretty much everything. Unfortunately Kucinich's tactical action disqualifies him for any respect, reducing him to a trophy!
As an old adage here on LeftItch goes, you can only straddle the horns of the donkey for so long. The time has come, it seems from these laments, to choose between principled positions, or tactic and bluster. Principles don't put food on the table, as Patrick Ewing famously observed, and bluster has its merit. Choosing bluster is a smart move -- principles are tough beasts -- but if they be your thing, you have to be able to punch back at more than just a hapless ex-single congressperson who is "mostly right".
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