The Change That's No Change Is The Change We Can Believe In

If it was pretty clear before the election, it's crystal now: the idea that the blogosphere offers a lot of diverse opinions is still kind of a dream waiting to happen.

Yeah, there's your basic left/right split and all, but look within the two, and you find... pretty much the same things.

It's easy enough to point out that the young, conservative white men of the Corner loo, and sound, a lot like the young conservative men at RedState, look and sound a lot like the young conservative men at The Weekly Standard look and sound a lot like the young conservative men at Commentary... and then cite Michelle Malkin as the exception that tends to prove the rule. Conservatism is marked by its doctrinaire approach (more on that later today), and the interchangability of its commentors is, after all, what leeps Fox News freshly annoying, hour after hour.

On the left we like to think we're more diverse than that; this election, though, atually laid bare how baldly untrue that lip service was, and a number of organizations - probably the Atlantic and American Prospect, most prominently - had to scramble to actually get the exciting election of the black man covered, you know, by black people.

I've written before about the narrowness of the mainstream left's blogs, but last night it hit me how narrow a post-Obama world will be - how interchangable the blogs of Matt Yglesias, Ezra Klein, Talking Points, TNR, Kevin Drum, and The Washington Monthly have all become.  The same issues, the same opinions, the same reactions (largely cheerleading) for every move the Obama team makes. Oh, and let's not forget My DD, Open Left and Daily Kos (certainly in Kos himself, but others as well).

Sure, we're getting this range of agreement because so many things, finally, seem to be going our way; and it's nice to know, for a moment, that liberals are on the same page.  But the liberalism I know and love isn't so easy, and doesn't march in lockstep. Already, we're trying to paper over disagreements, and dissent, and hard questions we ought not to lose sight of. The debate over gay marriage, for one thing, roils these notions of simple unity.

It's not that I want us to be at each other's throats; it's just that I think, and my blog, at least, is all about the idea that we need to see more than one side of things. I urge you to seek out alternative voices in the blogs, and to challenge the party lines. Ask the hard questions, don't settle. I won't. Let's challenge the Lefty Blog Establishment - ask them to do better, try harder, be more than what they are.

And if you have suggestions on interesting, less heard voices, share them... I'd like to make this an ongoing project. 

Comments

[Redstar]

not "black people" - "black men." They had to hire "black men" to keep company with the white men bloggers.

I don't read any of the mainstream blogs you linked to, except MyDD. Gee, I wonder why that might be??

I think YOU need to diversify your blogroll!! :)

[weboy]

Suggestions?

[Redstar]

Mine is still extremely lefty, so I'm not exactly reading anything new either.

I like FDL and Digby, Shakesville, Talk Left, Ta-Nehisi, The Black Snob, PostBourgie, and Anglachel. And you.

[lola]

"...narrowness of the mainstream left's blogs,"

For me, what's troubling is how similar left blogistan is to right blogistan, in terms of 'how' bloggers think (vs. 'what' they think).

It mostly boils down to "My A + My B = I'm right!" which doesn't make for much of an interesting read (unless you're already in the choir).

Every now and then, someone will actually think their way through an issue in an interesting, untidy way--without any perfect conclusions--but in general, it's freeze dried, reconstituted thinking: just add liberal or conservative water as desired and voila! dinner is served.

[jinbaltimore]

Good post. It seems only so many plot threads can be advanced at once.

Red, I'm loving Anglachel lately!

[scott]

That guy Sirota at OpenLeft particularly sets my teeth on edge. Sometimes he's pretty liberal on economic issues (which I prefer), but he's got a raging full-on case of Clinton Derangement Syndrome lately. Not that CDS is all that rare on the left blogs, either.

[Redstar]

scott, someone should let sirota know they make a cream for that these days.

[scott]

I wish they did. It was just kinda remarkable that for 2 or 3 days almost every post he did expressed his panic and revulsion that Obama was picking old Clinton Admin. hands and how that undermined the "change" mantra, etc. Weird.

[Old Enough]

If you really want to challenge yourself, check out www.correntewire.com

There you have a community of liberals who are largely un-enamored of Obama.