I just removed the Daily Kos from my feeder reader. And at the moment I’m close to doing the same with some other political blogs, namely Street Prophets and Andrew Sullivan.
Why? It’s simple: I’m sick of the polemics and the personal attacks. They’re just not helpful. It is blogging at it’s absolute worst.
I’ll be as clear as possible — I profoundly disagree with Sarah Palin’s politics, I think she was a horrible choice for McCain’s VP and as a result, he may have already lost the election. I understand the move, to woo Clinton supporters who are understandably upset about the still very much intact glass ceiling. I wasn’t planning on voting for McCain in the first place, but now I have all the more reason not to do so.
BUT – I don’t base any of that on the fact that Palin is a woman or that her teenage daughter is pregnant and decided to actually uphold the values her family ascribes to. I may disagree as to the nuances of those values and in some respects the core values themselves, but I deeply respect anyone who avoids the trap of hypocrisy for political points, especially public figures.
So when I see these so-called “leftist blogs” who supposedly preach equality and justice participating in personal attacks not only on Palin but on her family, I get a little wound up.
Palin should be critically evaluated just as Joe Biden, John McCain and Barack Obama should. But if you’re going to be critical of a potential leaders, you might want to start with their policy proposals and their actual politics. There’s no reason whatsoever to attack that person’s family and there’s absolutely no reason to spread poisonous rumors based on pure surmise.
This is the type of politics I absolutely despise, come they from the left, the right, the middle or God knows where. It does no one any good and only further politicizes an already grossly polemical process.
We don’t need more Crossfire-esque punditry; we need civil, edifying, and mature conversation, debate, and discussion.
So until these blogs raise their standard — good riddance.
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