Retention...

by Alex Haines

As we continue to examine the various political blogs on the web and comment on their ability (or lack there of) to define and contribute to the current political landscape, we see one constant throughout each: retention. Conservative or liberal, many popular political blogs will opt for the blinders in this race.
Obama makes one move, let's say cutting expenditures from the upcoming stimulus bill. If you work for a liberal blog, such as the Huffington Post or Salon, you will probably be likely to condemn the president for conceding any margin or voice and influence to the Republicans. However, if you're part on a conservative blog, say instantpundit or The Corner, you are probably still fighting the good "anti-stimulus" fight and going for a personal responsibility approach to the economic crisis. Whatever your view, it seems each side is just clinging to its basic and traditional ideas of conservatism or liberalism. It seems there isn't much leeway for a mixture in the blogosphere...
While liberals will continue to hold the president to every single promise and more, conservatives will hack away at each move he makes, disregarding actual progress or effective aid received by many Americans. There seems to be a tendency not toward subjectivity, but instead a move towards trivial bickering about who is right and who is wrong and who is to blame for the problem at hand and why it is not me (and my belief) and why the "other" people just cannot understand and how are vision is so much more clear and how we will win and they will lose... and so on and so forth. It is all just meaningless drivel that continues to extol archetypes of various preset beliefs (liberalism, conservativism, socialism, anarchism, libertarianism, etc.)
I realize the Internet is a place for free speech and writing about what you believe. But more and more, I think it is becoming a place (as well as television) where what we really believe is irrelevant, so long as it does not conflict with a particular ideology or preconceived set of beliefs. This is something of which we, as a people, often accuse Congress. Yet I find the same retention and inflexibility here in the blogosphere (a place where there are no laws...) There seems to be no place for moderation in the digital realm of political commentary.