The Smashmouth Realpolitik

Andrew, Andrew, Andrew - we've been talking about this for years. You describe how your fellow activist Green Josh Nelson attempted to participate in discussion at the Kos website by posting a journal entry about a Ralph Nader book signing. This, I could have told you in advance, was going to lead to trouble - the political equivalent of dishing out spicy tempeh bisque at a West Texas chili cookoff.

But to your point; your lament:

I can't help but wonder, what's the entertainment value of reading a Web site that only showers praises on one party and treats anything else as evil? What's the intellectual value of only reading people who agree with you? More importantly for these activists turned media, what's the political value of only discussing the issues with people who already are on your side?

From having perused both highly partisan websites on both the Left and Right, the entertainment value is negligible, unless you get a few guffaws from endlessly bashing those wily Demon-crats or Republi-jerks or whatever lame slam the regulars use. It's a bitter laugh, but comforting to folks with partisan anger. And the idea of "intellectual value" is also a non-applicable standard. The ideology has been comfortingly set in stone, and doesn't need to be challenged when there are elections to be won.

And that's the only point. Kos is in the business of influencing the agenda, sharing information, and creating momentum such that existing centrists Democrats move Left, and new more Leftist Democrats get elected next time. It's a testbed for rhetoric, talking points, and issues which resonate with the net/nut-roots, and it allows funding targets to be identified and developed.

Politics is an intensely pragmatic, brutal, full-contact sport when played at the national level. There's always someone willing to go lower, hit harder - and throw people over the side, especially if (as Nader has, in the minds of many Democrats) they have lost repeatedly. There is no "moral victory", and very little value in ideological "discussion" - except about what issues should be emphasized (which ones resonate) and which ones can or should be adjusted to appeal to a greater swath of the electorate.

More often than not it's even baser than that - a matter of deciding what noxious politics and strange bedfellows you can "put up with" to get a candidate who reflects, if you're lucky, 60-70% of your values.

Tags: Ralph Nader, Greens, Daily Kos, Partisanship