Saturday, February 10, 2007

Balloon Juice

John flipped a link to me recently, only courtesy I return the same. Balloon Juice is the blog of a guy who started as the type of conservative I talked about in I Miss Republicans. He stayed as that kind of conservative, but the Right kept moving right and right and righter ... and he saw Bush is just not very good at his job ... now he's roundly hated by the wingnuts as a leftie even though his basic beliefs haven't shifted a bit. As Glenn Greenwald has noted, conservativism is now defined as loyalty to the President rather than any actual set of principles.

I've said this before -- in a sane world, John Cole and I would spend a chunk of time disagreeing with each other genially. Somehow we're now on the same side. Here's hoping, soon, we can go back to opposite sides fo the fence. And I mean that in the best way possible.

Although even he has been seduced by the siren call of universal health care. So there's hope yet.

42 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree completely. By my belief systems I should be a Republican- if Republicans were still the same group they were when I was a boy.

I'm what I think of as fiscally conservative and socially moderate, yet somehow I'm a far left liberal Democrat these days.

And Universal Health Care should be attractive to everyone. It's good for people and good for business. Anyone that says otherwise works for Cigna or BCBS.

Noah Brand said...

I was kinda skimming down the page, and then I got to his opinion on John Edwards not firing his oh-so-scary bloggers.

He basically said he's not an Edwards fan, doesn't want him to be president, but that in this case Edwards did the right thing for the right reason. And then he provided his reasons for thinking so.

Actual intellectual honesty, ON THE INTERNET.

I felt like I'd come around a corner and found Bigfoot giving the Jersey Devil a handjob. Bookmarked it on the spot.

Heywood J. said...

Cole definitely deserves some credit for sticking to his guns. Intellectual honesty is a rare commodity. Universal health care would be cost-effective for everyone except insurance companies and Big Pharma, so I assume Cole owns stock in neither. Good for him.

The Republicans and conservatives I remember growing up, referencing if not actually endorsing them, at least made convincing overtures to the notions of responsibility, accountability, silly things like that.

These authoritarian assholes now, they're nothing more than a cult of personality, without even an actual personality to congregate around. It's like they all got lowjacked with a "worship Clay Aiken" chip or something. I don't know how these people manage to tie their shoes in the morning.

Anonymous said...

Any word on the Release date for Fatal Frame??

Otto Man said...

Yeah, you've got to be careful not to confuse Tim and John over there. Both are good folks, but John's the recovering conservative and Tim's the liberal.

john's even-keeled stance on the Edwards blogger thing was all the more remarkable because he has a real grudge against one of them (Amanda Marcotte). Next to Cindy Sheehan, nobody on the left makes him revert to old form as quickly.

Of course, these days, he's spending much more time recoiling from the right.

fester said...

Yeah, I think being a 'liberal' these days means willing to occassionally engage in critical thinking about he best representation of reality --- that is not a high bar to clear, but it certainly is a stark divider of our political discourse.

I am a liberal, and a minor fifth tier cog in the forming vast progressive conspiracy, but when I read through Balloon Juice, both for John and Tim F. and the guy from Texas, I see one unabashed liberal (TIm) and two people doing their best of examining reality. And they are my allies --- I want our political discourse to get to the point where John is not a consistent ally because he and people like him are able to advocate for their values and find an audience within a conservative party. If that happens, I am not too concern who has power as reality will again be a major constraint and motivator of action.

opit said...

Amanda has rubbed me wrong many times. That said, her post at Pandagon on quitting the Edwards campaign and relating her take on the situation revealed a maturity and insight I had not appreciated before.

opit said...

I don't know if my comment bounced on verification or not. Apologies if this is a double post.
Amanda Marcotte has been far from my favourite blooger. I've found her, in the main, shrill and repetitive. That said, her post at Pandagon quitting the Edwards campaign showed balance and insight I had not previously noted. Worth a look.

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