washingtonpost.com has been under some populist pressure to find a conservative blogger to balance the rhetoric that slams them as being uber-lefty. And so, in picking uber-wunderkind Ben Domenech (co-founder of groupblog RedState, they believe they got it right... oh really??
Domenech's wapo blog Red American was launched today, with the opening statement: "This is a blog for the majority of Americans."
Wow. That's the shortest hyperbolism I've read in awhile! Has Domenech looked at Bush's approval rating these days? Has he noticed that even some conservatives have come out against Bush's position on Iraq? It's not that the majority of Americans are conservative, it's that the Democrats haven't given most people a viable presidential candidate in recent years. Domenech's youthful opinoins obviously bespeaks of a boy who spends a lot of time in hallowed halls, and not a lot of time actually talking to individuals who label themselves neocons. If he did, he'd find an awful lot of disaffected liberals who are not necessarily wholehearted supporters of the Republican agenda as much as they are disgusted with what they see as a Democratic party that has lost its sense of reason and teters on what they feel is the dangerous the edge of "looney left."
In a two party system where there is no middle groun--and, in effect, no reason-- many people will lean toward the group they believe they might be able to help effect change. Prior to the latest expressions of Bush's power-madness, many felt the Right would be more amenable to finding a middle ground than the Left, and shifted in that direction. At this point, it is the right-wing legislators who voted against the Dubai ports deal, not any conservative zeitgeist nor any love of Bush, that is keeping neocons.
That's hardly evidence that the country is conservative in the manner Domenech states.
However, if a viable Democrat appears, someone who offers a new world view, not a rehash of the 1960's or the Clinton administration, and did not sound like "looney Left," I would hedge a bet that man neocons flip the switch and become neo-neoliberals.
The "growth of conservative America" that Domenech says is occurring, could flip quicker than the boy's next birthday for many other reasons--if the heathcare situation worsened (and it is--daily), if we have another natural disaster along the lines of Katrina before the election, if the situation in Iraq were revealed (finally) to be a civil war...
Best advice from an older woman to a young man--don't count your chickens, sweetie.
Yet what is also vexing about Domenech is his age and credentials. While one can view a listing of all Domenech's publishing creds on his blog, I wonder if he is only 24--looks like he could be older. And isn't there a somewhat offensive pretentious component to a young man who uses the pseudonymn Augustine? The religion scholar in me giggled at that one...but I see where WaPo's trying to catch the youth audience with this choice....
how that will rate with many neocons, who've come upon their choice at middle-age, will be quite interesting to watch....
and, indeed we will watch...
(mucho thanks to sean's post on the matter...)
Journalism, citizen journalism, media, Blogging, Blog, Blogs, Weblogs
2 comments:
You hit the nail square on the head. I feared the 'looney left' more than I distrusted Bush. If anyone gives me a decent centrist choice, they'll get my vote.
The Democrats HAD a moderate Presidential candidate... his name was Joe Liberman and the Democrat party campaigned against him... and LOST.
Hillary, Obama and Edwards are all moonbat lefty's.
Now what?
-red
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