Not So Wide A Divide?
I started this blog in the first week of March, exactly two months ago. Unique visitors just passed 100,000, with page loads far exceeding that. The days on which the site has seen the heaviest traffic have been as a result of links posted by traditionally liberal bloggers like Josh Marshall and Atrios, though many visitors also found the blog through National Review.
I don't think anything I've posted here has been "anti-conservative." On the contrary, actually, most of what I've written has been anti-intellectual dishonesty, anti-statism, pro-common sense and pro-Constitutional rights. I've also tried to make the point that there are times when being a conservative does not necessarily mean you are a Republican; since I believe some elements of this Republican Party have morphed into a vehicle for crass opportunism unmoored from both reality and ideological heritage, this is one of those times. The fact that much of the interest in this blog seems to come from traditionally liberal readers tells me that there is far less that separates intelligent, clear-thinking people from the two main political spheres than most suspect and some dogma-blinded nuts on both sides would have you believe. That's encouraging.
As always, I welcome your e-mails and posted comments. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.
I don't think anything I've posted here has been "anti-conservative." On the contrary, actually, most of what I've written has been anti-intellectual dishonesty, anti-statism, pro-common sense and pro-Constitutional rights. I've also tried to make the point that there are times when being a conservative does not necessarily mean you are a Republican; since I believe some elements of this Republican Party have morphed into a vehicle for crass opportunism unmoored from both reality and ideological heritage, this is one of those times. The fact that much of the interest in this blog seems to come from traditionally liberal readers tells me that there is far less that separates intelligent, clear-thinking people from the two main political spheres than most suspect and some dogma-blinded nuts on both sides would have you believe. That's encouraging.
As always, I welcome your e-mails and posted comments. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.
posted by The Cunning Realist at Friday, May 06, 2005
19 Comments:
I must say I enjoy reading your posts - just wish there were more (hint, hint).
I am a normally liberal reader - not because I have traditionally been left leaning - I'm from the south so most of us only go so far left - but becuase so much of what the GOP practices currently appalls and revolts me on levels I never thought it could.
I am one of those people in the middle that the extremes in both parties (and in the case of the GOP - the entire party as it is currently) don't talk to or even care about for that matter. I like my politics sane even though I am originally from New Orleans. I don't think I am alone - though considering the way things have been for 4+ years - it often feels like I am.
Kudos to you for your great insight and clear intellectually honest arguements.
I Look forward to reading your posts even when I might not agree entirely with you beacuse they are always thought-provoking and well reasoned. Keep up the good work.
I entirely agree with tayefeth. The divide in this country is not between Democrat and Republican or even Left and Right, but between Rationalism and Superstition.
The Kansas "debate" concerning evolution for example, or the latest drool from PETA concerning animal rights...
I think you got us with the phrase "intellectually honest in a world of hired spin". We're starved for reason, common sense, perspective, mature debates. We could do with a lot less dogma, hypocrisy, marketing, and gerrymandering.
i think your dandy
I'm drawn to blogs and writers who write well and are genuinely interested in doing what is right for the people of the country, rather than doing what is politically advantageous, and you fit both criteria.
I do not recall how I discovered your blog and I liked it. It was most intriguing to me to read "a declared conservative" willing to recognize that the Republicans in power are making decisions that are only advantageous to the Republican Party and the rest of the country be dammned. This is something that I have found nobody in the GOP willing to admit a single fault, mistake or error.
Nonetheless, the themes you brought up are very well taken, very well written and your comments very
reasonable. Keep up the good work.
I don't think this should come as a revelation. In case you missed it, Clinton and the Democratic party in general worked quite well with Republicans in the 90s. The problem today is that there is no sense of compromise on the Republican side of the isle today (at least, among the leadership, especially Bush/DeLay)
Sir, you are a rare breed (at least where I live). You actually have a grasp on logic, reason and acccountability and you stick to it. That powerful koolaid that the GOP distributes in its mass mailings tends to trump anything that its individual members have ever known or believed. Your initial post was featured in a blog that I often read (The Dust Congress). To put it mildly, it's not a pro-Bush blog. I was stunned to see that a conservative would actually let his financial expertise get in the way of Republican talking points. I mean, if Bill Frist, a licensed doctor, can support the possibility that AIDS can be transmitted through sweat, what's next? Republicans members of congress (many of them law school graduates) claiming that judges are merely puppets of the executive and legislative bodies of our country? Nah, that wouldn't happen.
I don't care where it comes from but I want the company of people commited to good governance, solving real and pressing problems and bettering the lives of all the American people. I am tired of being spun, lied to and played for a fool. I will take my relief wherever I can find it, labels be damned...
TCR:
You're doing good work. It's not partisan, it is honest and it is needed.
Thanks.
Your work is excellent and evidences real honesty in analysis, which is incredibly refreshing in a US that seems to be being torn apart by partisanship.
As for this particular reader, I'm quite conservative in many respects and fairly liberal on some issues, but I'm sickened at the partisanship, dishonesty, corruption, smarmy religiosity, and hostility to common people's welfare of the current Republican administration. I suspect the Republicans have lost me for good.
I have great respect for real conservatives who have principles, however, and who apply those principles honestly, and so I find your comments very welcome and read them regularly. Please keep it up.
I have one suggestion: don't stop.
The more true conservatives there are holding the flame that the GOP ignores, the better to foment a true grass-roots reformation in the hopefully-near future. May we get some cunning realists in Congress soon...
This would be a Libertarian, formerly a member of the party and now unaffiliated, btw. Since people are sharing that type of information.
Keep up the good work.
I read your blog regularly. I linked over here from some liberal site, not sure which one. My hubby keeps telling me to read both sides of the issues, but I can't stomach what passes for Republicanism these days. I used to occasionally vote for Pubs, since I am basically fiscally conservative. But they have lost me forever.
I read you because you are intellegent, thoughtful, and because in reading you I have some hope, even if it is small, that there are still conservatives out there like the ones I remember growing up. Ones you could respect, even though you had differences. I often ask "Where have the grownups in the Republican part gone?" Until they come back, alas, I fear for our country.
It is good to know there is at least one out there. Thank you for your blog and keep up the good work! Your hits are so high because your content is so good.
I once was and still consider myself to be a conservative but am now so disturbed by the actions of the Republican-controlled administration that I would choose the liberal Democrats over them in a heartbeat; seeing it as a big improvement in intellectual honesty, common sense and Constitutional rights. As a humanist, I don't usually think in terms of good versus evil but the present Republican administration has forced me to revisit that concept; I feel that we are swimming in evil in this country today.
Great article! Thanks.
Thanks for interesting article.
Excellent website. Good work. Very useful. I will bookmark!
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