Thursday, July 17, 2008

Which Liberal Bloggers is the Statesman Talking About?

It was inevitable with the 3,000 liberal bloggers descending on Austin, Texas for a new-media conference that editors of the local paper, the Austin American-Statesman, would weigh in and take a few conventional mainstream shots at the bloggers.  However, I cannot get my mind around the editorial's criticism that progressive bloggers have some single-minded focus on Obama's flip flop on telecom immunity to the exclusion of other interests like the economy and rising fuel prices.

The bloggers I've read who are critical of the flip flop have not stopped hammering way on the economy or fuel prices or the war or the nations infrastructure or human rights abuses caused by "free trade" or any other significant issue.  I certainly have not.  These issues are not mutually exclusive.

It is no more a waste of time to oppose telecom immunity now than it was to oppose school segregation in the 1950s when the majority of Americans were ambivalent about desegregation.  And widespread dissent doesn't just emerge out of thin air.  It starts with a few early adopters before it goes viral.  In fact, it won't go viral without early adopters.

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