A Blog Gone Off the Left Cliff

In a blog ranting on the Republicans, Atrios writes:

"The End?
If the Democrats are unwilling to stop this, then there really isn't much point in bothering.
From what I can discern, the Senate Judiciary Committee essentially passed on responsibility to the full Senate to save the administration by enacting the Specter FISA bill, while simultaneously blocking Democratic efforts on the Committee to dilute the most offensive parts of the Specter bill. Democrats have been reluctant to pay much attention to the Specter bill, but the way in which it (a) abolishes all limits on the President's eavesdropping powers; (b) embraces the Bush administration's most radical executive power theories; and (c) virtually destroys the ability to obtain judicial review for the President's lawbreaking, renders it a bill that is at least as pernicious as anything else that is pending. It deserves full-scale attention and opposition."

Jan Leighley, in her book, Mass Media and Politics, differentiates between cognitive media and behavioral media. From the reading of blogs, such as this one, I believe it is clearly evident that the cognitive aspect is severely downplayed in light of the behavioral or emotional aspect. For example, what Atrios does in his blog is, basically, rile up his readership to his ideas and ideals that the Republicans are destroying America and its fabric, the Constitution. He brings as evidence the decision of the Senate Judiciary Committee to bring the FISA bill on wire-tapping out of committee, where it can be amended more easily, out onto the Senate floor for vote approval. To me, we have to understand and realize that, yes it is a schemey thing to do, but the Republicans and Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) in particular, must have some redeeming value on their views. Indeed they support the President, but this in some ways is a good thing… have you ever heard on national security? So, I would be very bothered to learn that this blog is among the only news sources of his readership, since he is not presenting both sides. But even if I were to accept that this is his blogging experience and he can write whatever and however he wants, one of his readers or maybe even himself should have quoted the end of the article linked by Atrios:

UPDATE II: As I've documented many times -- the most recent such documentation here -- the notion that Democratic opposition to warrantless eavesdropping will "help Republicans" is transparently false Rovian bravado that has been empirically disproven time and again. As I document here, the opposite is true -- most Americans oppose warrantless eavesdropping, and the throngs of Americans who have abandoned the President are not going to stream back to Republicans based on a non-existent desire to see him have the power to eavesdrop on Americans with no oversight.

Specifically, if the Republicans do get this bill passed, the majority of he American people will not approve. This is of course, assuming that the public are informed of political events. But I believe that for this, they will be.

As for the comments to the blog. From reading them, I got the feeling that Atrios is basically, forgive the cliché, “preaching to the choir”. There is much cursing in favor of his position and ranting about how the Republicans have abandoned the Constitution. I, personally, was expecting to see more arguments made than agreements.

As for their knowledge, it seems that since those people who commented actually did so, I have to give them the benefit of the doubt that they are interested people. This would hold true according to Leighley, since really only those people who are actually concerned about politics, know what is going on and it is really difficult for the media to change the views, or even enlighten people on current issues.

In conclusion, I take this blog and its comments to be representative of a group of left-winged zealots who hate the Republicans and all they want to do is rant and rave about how its unfair to democrats. And for that reason, I can’t be taken to change my mind on the issues brought up. If they really wanted to try and convince others, perhaps they, or he, should write in a more balanced way, thereby, drawing a bi-partisan readership and in that way attempt to convince them of his views.