The Problem With "Progressive" Blogs

Those who like to call themselves liberals commonly use the term "partisanship" as a means of attacking conservatives who simply follow the Republican party line. Partisan conservatives oppose Democrats simply because they are Democrats. They don't really follow many of the principles of conservativism, such as a balanced budget and fiscal responsibility, they just attack the opposing party with their only goal being to get their friends into office.

In recent years, this partisanship has infiltrated the progressive movement as well. Air America Radio, for example, does not stand for any really progressive issues, other than those which are designed to get Democrats elected. They remain silent on issues which do not help Democrats. In a way, they can't be faulted for this, because when Al Franken (the only person on that station that I like and respect) first started the station, he claimed to be the Democratic equivalent of Rush Limbaugh. In saying that, he admitted that he was partisan, and not really progressive. I don't listen to them very often, so it is possible that this has changed recently.

Blogs like Eschaton and Daily Kos, however, do in fact claim to be progressive, when they are really exactly the same thing as Air America Radio. Whenever possible, they link only to other partisan Democrat sites, and they never write about issues with any goal other than getting more Democrats elected. For example, Atrios did not begin writing about the secret CIA pisons until Republicans made an effort to turn it into a political issue. A network of secret CIA prisons is not in itself a partisan issue because the CIA is not a partisan elected group. Then, Republicans began an investigation into a leak in the CIA which lead to the Washington Post story about the secret prisons with the expectation that a Democrat was involved in leaking classified CIA information. As soon as that happened, Atrios could not stop writing about it.

I understand the desire to get Democrats elected, but to do so and still call yourself progressive is disingenuous. Atrios and others like him are nothing more than partisan hacks.

I should mention that I have found a lot of very good progressive blogs which are an exception to this, such as ZNet and Not The Country Club, but they are certainly rare exceptions.