Catching Up with Digby

While linking below to Digby's post entitled "Sustainable" below, I looked at the trackback links and found something pretty funny. Two of the four (there should be five, but for whatever reason Haloscan wasn't letting me add my post to the list...oh well) links are from right-leaning blogs rolling their eyes at Digby throwing yet another baby fit and...blah blah blah. My initial reaction was, well, confusion because it takes a bit of extra work to actually use the Trackback feature in the first place...and the main reason you use trackback in the first place is to get the attention of a blog's writers/readers. Guess this is one more way that righties go out of their way to make sure you know that they're glaring at you. Ooh. So scared. But I digress.

I mentioned in Friday's blogroll post that most blogs are officially blocked from my place of work (but FoxNews isn't, of course), and because of that I've been playing catch-up on what really has been a quality week of blogging from the lefties. I also mentioned that it had been an especially strong week at Hullabaloo. I was going to take this time to comment on a number of posts, but I've been distracted by the strongest post of the week, one that was made after my blogroll post went up on Friday.

But before there, allow me to at least link to the four posts whose links I'd saved for comment:

Crazed Secular Base

Anybody who thinks that they can woo Republicans by publicly slapping down this atheist straw man is a fool. If the [Democratic] party insists on going in this direction the social conservatives will insist they show their good intentions with something real. They always do. The death penalty is off the table. So are guns. The uterus is next on the list.

It Could Be Worse

When you have this level of "intellectual" discourse being taken very seriously in newspapers and on television, I look at this foreign affairs panel and just breathe a sign of relief that Newt Gingrich wasn't on it. This is, of course, the problem. The spectrum of opinion is always restricted by the fact that the right blasts the atmosphere with gaseous rhetoric so inane and outrageous that they define the perimeter of the debate.

May I Puke?

What a sick and confused bastard.

So Much For The Indispensible Nation

The neocons have achieved the opposite of what they set out to achieve. Instead of an empire their failed experiment is turning the American public isolationist. There was a time not so long ago when it would have been assumed that the US would play an active role in solving any serious foreign policy crisis. After the cock-ups of the last few years, people are no longer so sanguine that we will actually help the situation rather than make it worse.

Now that that's out of the way, let's bring our attention to something of an optimistic post. It's good not only because it's optimistic, but as I grow more pessimistic by the day, I latch on to whatever hope I can find. I'll forgive Digby for being extremely late to the Dixie Chicks party on this one because the points he makes are so good (and because he linked to a performance of theirs that I hadn't seen yet...though the youtube link appears to be down now).

I've blogged plenty about the Chicks in recent months, but I'll take this time to reiterate why they have become as important as they have. Just as Natalie Maines' "We're ashamed..." statement three years ago was refreshing because they were the only ones saying what millions were thinking, "Not Ready to Make Nice" was refreshing in that somebody on the left side of the ledger actually didn't capitulate to righty scare tactics for once. Maybe this shouldn't be refreshing, but it is. The media coverage of "Will they apologize?" and "Do they regret it?" instead of "Can you believe they got death threats for this?", on the other hand...

Anyway, on to Digby's post:

I take it personally when a propaganda industry makes millions spreading lies that liberals are terrorists or traitors. Yet the political establishment, including the media, doesn't seem to think I should care about such things --- even as I've seen my party and my country degraded and humiliated for years by this virulent strain of rightwing politics.

I was driving the other day and the announcer of the pop station I was listening to said that their most requested song was "I'm Not Ready To Make Nice" by the Dixie Chicks. I realized I had never closely listened to it before. As I drove alongside the Pacific Ocean with the windows open and the stereo blasting I think I finally understood -- or admitted to myself -- that much of this netroots and grassroots energy and emotional committment is coming from the simple fact that we've just reached the rope of our ends with these malignant Republican bullies and the people who would protect their privilege rather than stand up.

I think this song expresses how many of us feel after 20 years of a non-stop assault from the right --- and the eager capitulation of those who find us a convenient strawman from whom they can distance themselves.

...

Don't lose your nerve Democrats. I know you hate to be "unseemly" and loathe the idea that anyone will think you are "unreasonable." I understand that having Rush say you are in thrall to the lunatic left fringe brings on a 60's flashback that leaves you dripping in a cold sweat. But get a grip on your subconscious fear of being a feeling and breathing human being and recognize that this is a good and necessary thing for your country. (You might even come to "kinda like it" like those Dixie Chicks have.) You don't have to be neutered farm animals anymore. If you're ready to take it to them we're here to get your backs.

This, too, was a pretty refreshing post. It's been so easy to move into defeatist mode recently, both about politics and world affairs, and if history's any indication, it's pretty realistic to do so. But in this case, 'realism' doesn't accomplish much if you're not trying to do something about it. I could respond to Digby by saying "Democrats lost their nerves a long time ago," but for now I'll just say, Amen. As soon as Dems choose--or are forced--to recognize that there is a large population of the Voting Left who really does have their backs and will fight for them as soon as they realize we're a positive force, then well, it's time to fight for them.