Left v Right in the blogosphere

From the Republican eCamapign --

Front Page Magazine has an article today regarding recent comments by Karl Rove on the difference between the blog world of Republicans and that of Democrats. Rove says that while conservative blogs have been moving the party forward through principled discussion and exchange of ideas, liberal blogs have been steered by their anger and hatred to the far left fringe of the party. And predictably, Rove is proven dead on by liberal bloggers’ reactions to his comments.

There's a little treause hunting for nuggets of negativism in the examples of response to Rove's statements, but in general, I think his statement is pretty much right on.

I do also think that the internet has proven to be a more powerful tool on our side than it has been for the other side. It has proven to be a tool on our side to sort of unite Conservatives and have a healthy intra-movement dialogue. But it’s essentially been something that has helped us gain in influence and broaden our appeal. Among Democrats, my sense is that the blog world has tended to strengthen the far Left of the Democratic Party at the expense of liberal, but somewhat less liberal, members of their party. It has tended to sort of drive their party even further to the Left rather than focusing on good ideas that would help unite people around common goals and common purposes. Instead, the Internet for the Left of the Democratic Party has served as a way to mobilize hate and anger — hate and anger, first and foremost, at this President and conservatives, but then also at people within their own party whom they consider to be less than completely loyal to this very narrow, very out-of-the-mainstream, very far Left-wing ideology that they tend to represent.

Rove's observations could be extended beyond blogs. Aside from some challenging ideas from liberals writing about legal theory and jurisprudence, there isn't a lot of challenging liberal writing, and what there is tends to be more libertarian than "big government" liberal.

Locally, the St. Paul Legal Ledger was looking for a liberal blogger that could sustain an idea long enough to write a 600-700 word column. It couldn't find one. I don't think the fault lies in the talent of liberal bloggers -- there are some that turn some very good phrases and have some very good insights. But liberal philosophy, based as it is on appeal to emotion rather than reason, leaves very little room for rational discourse.

Update: Eva Young notes a misstatement in the FrontPage story linked in this post --

Craig:

From the Frontpage story you linked:

"F**k you Karl Rove," was how Raw Story.com began its studied
response. "We are angry and we hate you and your boss as well as the
rest of the f***ed up media and crony s*#t we all see all the time in
addition to what has become of a once great country going down the
tubes!!!!"

This was a comment to Rawstory's story - but wasn't the original
story. It's like attributing one of Swiftee's more colorful comments
to you.

Here's what Rawstory actually said:

Rove: Right use Net to 'broaden our appeal,' while left use it to
'mobilize hate and anger'

Ron Brynaert
Published: Friday June 16, 2006

Eva makes a good catch, and as I noted, I thought the story did a bit of selective hunting to find sensational quotes that made its point. Nonetheless, I think Rove's point is valid and worthy of discussion -- or some might just call me a shill.