Cross Posted in Blue and Orange.
On the Eve of Blogosphere Day, I spent my evening (and a considerable part of the work day) with Chris Bowers of MyDD, BooMan, and the other denizens of Drinking Liberally and stars of the Philly Blogosphere (among them Atrios). Chris and I went to the screening of Inconvenient Truth, which featured a question and answer session with the former Vice President and current legitimate President himself.
Chris and I arrived promptly at 4:00 p.m. I arrived before Chris and had to spurn the advances of Green Party petitioners who seized the opportunity of Al Gore’s appearance for a petition drive to get them on the ballot.
I fended them off by stating “I wish ya luck, but I am a Democrat.” The young man holding the clip board was very nice and said “oh ok, have a good time at the movie.”
I move forward to the entrance, and text message Chris to let him know where I was. (He had the tickets. I apparently won his MyDD ticket contest this afternoon, even though I emailed him three hours after the contest started with a veiled threat that he owed me for my purchasing his Fahreheit 9/11 movie tickets). I light a cigarette and await his arrival.
As I am waiting, the Green Party petitioners are nearby, discussing their plans of action to get more signatures. Feeling bad about my brushing them off earlier, I suggested they would have better luck after the movie at the exit, after the movie goers are energized by the movie and after hearing Al Gore speak. They agreed. I felt better. Because, even though I disagree with some ideas and policies the Green Party advances, and even though I disagree with their strategy of trying to grow a third party rather than joining and trying to take over the Democratic Party and becoming part of the Democratic Party primary process, members of the Green Party and I agree on more, if not most, things. We definitely both oppose Republicans and the Bush Administration.
The movie was great. Al Gore was great. Chris and I luckily chose the two seats right down front and right on the end, where Al Gore both entered and exited. As such, Chris got good pictures, and we both got to shake his hand. We thought about asking him to follow us over to Philadelphia’s Drinking Liberally event, but he was in a rush to leave for another book signing.
We head over to Drinking Liberally and begin to consume and smoke large quantities of cigarettes and beer, not necessarily in that order. Soon enough, BooMan saddles over to the bar, and later Atrios, and all of us discuss politics, Joe Sestak’s chances, Patrick Murphy’s chances, and the horrible crisis in the middle east, among other things.
It occurred to me, and I mentioned this to the both of them, there here were the propreitors of both MyDD and BooMan Tribune, and a famous (infamous?) diarist at Daily Kos, sitting down as friends, enjoying each other’s company, and having a beer.
Indeed, if the denizens of BooMan Tribune knew that BooMan and I were friends, he would probably have a coup on his hands over here.
The reason I say that is that each of three blogs, Daily Kos, MyDD, and BooMan Tribune, definitely seem to have different audiences, and often times there is animosity among us. To a lesser extent with MyDD towards Daily Kos and Booman Tribune, but definitely between Daily Kos and Booman Tribune. And definitely between Daily Kos and My Left Wing. I am not talking about animosity between the actual frontpagers and proprietors of these sites (although often times that occurs as well). But between the many community members of each. Sure, there are some, like myself, that visit all three (or four or five) blogs each day. But we often identify with one blog only. I identify with Daily Kos. I don’t know why, but I do.
I think it is because we all, quite simply, don’t agree on everything. Indeed, the denizens of Booman Tribune are definitely more progressive than those of MyDD and Daily Kos. MyDD entertains what I think is a more analytical audience with respect to electoral strategy and process. Daily Kos has everything and everyone, and hence our interminable flame wars. Indeed, those flame wars often swell the ranks, or even create, other blogs. I think I am responsible for several influxes of new members at Booman and My Left Wing.
The point of this is we all have our differences. We all get mad at each other. Some of you probably think I am an asshole. A lot of you definitely think Armando is an asshole. Some of us think Maryscott is an attention hog. Some of you think Kos is a power mad dictator intent on electing Mark Warner president and controlling the blogosphere. These are what we call personality conflicts.
In the end, we all have more agreements than not. We are all residents of the great blogosphere. The great progressive netroots. We have the same goals. I think we all need to support each other more, and tear down each other less. And, I say this knowing full well that it will lead to conspiracy charges given that Booman, Chris, Atrios and I just emerged from a smoke filled room, we all need to work together more. How, I don’t know.
I say all of this because we got an election coming up, a movement and a political party to build. Can we forget about how progressive we all are, and whether or not we are Jewish, Christian or Muslim, or whether or not we support Israel or not? Can we forget our primary differences (Hackett v. Brown, Casey v. Pennacchio, etc.)?
I hope so, because if we all just spent the tenth of the time we spend fighting each other in flame wars and on other battle fields on accomplishing our common goals, the defeat of Republicans nationwide and their enablers, we will really make progress.
Thanks for listening.
