The Freak Show

So I decided to punish myself the other day by looking at the Daily Kos (the political blog that has become the major voice for the Extreme Left). It took me all of four second to be whipped into a frenzy of anger, disdain, and general pissed-off-iness. Why I chose this form of self-punishment, I do not know.

On this occasion, more than on most others, I was peeved by all the little things that I can usually ignore as part of our current political culture. The thing that really got my ire was the word "progressive". I see it as essentially a marketing ploy by the Far Left to avoid all the negative connotation associated with their ideas. So incensed was I that I quickly fired off an anti-"progressive" rant.

Irrational anger and unintelligent thought are the nemesis of this site, so after settling down I thought long and hard about whether to post such a rant. The shame of it is, this was quite a catch-22. Posting irrational anger dripping with snide comments sells in our society. I'm sure posting such a rant would make people laugh and probably cause more people to read the VoterVault more often. On the flip side, it is exactly this type of commentary that is degrading our political debate and generally weakening our ability to think critically.

That being said, below I've gone ahead and posted the rant. However, I'm posting it as an example of derogatory, negative, nonconstructive political speech, and shaming myself and those who write like this. Here it is:

Progressives?

Seriously, that term drives me friggin' nuts every time I hear it. You are liberals. Hey Daily Kos: you are liberals. Hey Moveon.org: you are liberals. Shut up with your stupid, condescending "progressive" crap. No one is buying it.

You know why you have to call yourselves "progressives"? Because every time someone hears the word "liberal" they cringe. And you know why they cringe? Because you suck, that's why. Every idea associated with the word "liberal" makes every average, red-blooded American want to puke all over your Progressive hippie ass.

Every time an article appears like this one or this one or this one or this one you make the 95% of America who are not you want to run the other way. So you hide. You change your name. You come up with a marketing ploy that is the word "Progressive". As though that somehow changes all the crap you stand for. It doesn't. It's wrapping a turd in a shinny package and saying, "Look! See! We're not Liberal...we're Progressive!" Shut up.

You know why Conservatives don't mind being called Conservatives? Because we're not crazy. Because we are proud of our ideas. Because we don't have to shy away when called upon. We can stand up and say "I'm a Conservative...". You? You run. You change your name. When you stand up and say "I'm liberal", Joe American wants to barf on you. So you stand up and say "I'm a progressive" in the hopes that Joe American says "oh, Progressive, what's that?" Wouldn't that be nice for you--to not be barfed on.

It's only a matter of time that your own ideas get tied to the word "progressive". Then the barfing can resume. After that, you can start focusing on your next new title to try to escape Joe American's attitude to your every belief.

Man, that's pretty bad. That's not the kind of discussion and analysis we need. I got thinking about this while reading a book about the 2008 presidential election called The Way to Win by Halperin and Harris. They call modern American politics "The Freak Show". They discuss in detail that our society, culture, and therefore our media, value extremism, partisanship, showmanship, and emotionalism. By doing so they devalue analysis, constructive debate, moderation, the common good, and serious thought in general.

I don't want to be part of the Freak Show.

That means fewer people will read, which is disappointing. But the Freak Show is bad for our system. The Freak Show is bad for our country. Two important features of the Freak Show, as put by Halperin and Harris: 1) The New Media (like this blog, cable news, talk radio, etc.) have caused "the disintegration of editorial filters in the Old Media, which in an earlier age prevented the most salacious tales and better accusations from entering the public arena"; and more importantly 2)led to the "erosion of basic habits of decorum and self-restraint, in politics and media alike".

May the VoterVault raise the level of discourse and practice the basic habits of decorum and self-restraint. May you call me out if it does not.