I have been reading and reading and following links to links for months now. Looking for the political blogs that inspire me.  I've been looking in particular for two things.  (1) Right-leaning blogs which read like the writer(s) are actually open to reasoned discourse. [And I have found too few of these, so if you know of one, dear reader, please do alert me to it]  And (2) left-leaning bloggers with some fire, some passion -- that are not simply pundits, political analysts or policy wonks.

And then I read a couple of posts from two left-wing firebrands, Conceptual Guerilla and Mykeru.  Really passionate, angry, activist stuff - but also very smart and seemingly well informed and rooted in reality. [For example, this recent post at Mykeru deconstructing a sliver of Bush's recent press conference is well worth the read].  And I feel hopeful for this first time in a long time. After reading it I flashed back to a post I wrote on my old blog in April.  Which I think I submitted to the Truth Laid Bear's New Weblog Showcase at the time. Rereading it I still like it and I think it captures a point relevant again now.  So here are the key points:

Why does it seem like all the inflammatory, rabble-rousing lefties are wearing birkenstocks and holding up placards at the World Bank and IMF? Why is the "establishment" left so freakin' conservative?  It's like once leftists grow up and become parents and investers in 401Ks and wearers of suits and assumers of mortgagers we feel we have given up the right to be truly radical in our idealism.   So we play it safe.   Once we assume the guise of grown-ups in mainstream North American culture, we seem to give up our power, our passion.   It's like we know that we sold out ... that somehow we have internalized and accepted the myth of those back and white dichotomies : "You are either part of the solution or part of the problem." 

Well, yeah.  If you are what I consider a real bleeding heart liberal in your soul, then your heart does bleed for all of it.  All the ways that as a species we are fucking up the planet and fucking over each other.  And you are willing to bleed because you have hope and you can't but help believe that it can get better and that it will get better and that people really want it to get better -- you have to believe that or you can't take your next breath.

But holding that all in your heart and in your head.  Well it freakin' paralyzes you doesn't it?  I mean our whole socio-economic set-up here is an enormous, snorting, gas-guzzling, ravenous, soul-crushing, consumption-crazed, out-of-control behemoth.  And you gotta put food on the table, right?  And take a well-earned vacation every now and then, right? And who could begrudge us a few perks of our labours?  And before you know it, ye gods, you look in the mirror and, GASP, you are one of them.

So no wonder grown-up liberals are so damn apologetic and accomodating and friggin' reasonable.  We're all a little embarassed and feeling guilty.  And there goes our grip on our righteous anger, our passion, our zeal, our fire -- all those things that one can hear on any given afternoon on AM radio.   But not on NPR. 

I still think there is truth there.  The establishment left won't engage in a real political knifefight not just because it's incongrous with our ideals, but also because we all feel just a little guilty.  We all feel just a little part of the problem.  Until we let ourselves off the hooks for not being sod-house living, mass-transit riding, TV-forswearing, vegetarians who never pass a homeless person without taking them to lunch and spend each and every weekend and holiday preparing food baskets and tutoring less-advantaged children; until we forgive ourselves for being successful in a system we recognize as inherently stacked against some folks; until we get over our liberal guilt -- well, we aren't gonna be able to channel the outrage, the anger, the passion, and the energy that we need in order to mobilize and act on the scale that is required to defeat the forces of evil that have control of our nation.

And yes, I am willing at this point to say forces of evil.  I have been hedging on it and tip-toeing around it for years now.  Willing to believe that I must be misunderstanding something, or that I must be misinformed because it couldn't possibly be as bad as it seemed.  But the things that this administration has done seem insane.  Insanely stupid or insanely evil.  And I think it is a little bit of both depending on where you point the finger.

Evil.  What a wonderful word to be able to claim. To reclaim from the sanctimonious conservatives to whom we have far-too-long ceded the moral arena.   That is yet another weakness of the left we must dedicate ourselves to overcoming.  Just because we revolt against the totalitarian legislation of morality desired by the right, we must not relinquish the language and logic of moral reasoning in the public arena.  [Oh yes, there is at least another post's worth of passion there ... but it is late and my mental energy is waning.]

Before I go -- and because I imagine that most reasonable and self-respecting left-leaning folks who may be reading this have recoiled at my use of the word -- the definition of evil from Merriam Webster on-line:

1 a : morally reprehensible : SINFUL, WICKED <an evil impulse> b : arising from actual or imputed bad character or conduct <a man of evil reputation>

3 a : causing harm : PERNICIOUS <the evil institution of slavery>

I, for one, am perfectly comfortable characterising the current admin in those terms.

12:10:08 AM