Way back in 2007, as a nice gesture, I wrote a conciliatory post towards RedState after they came in second (to us) in a top category at the Weblog Awards.
I don’t have any particular beef with Erick and RedState, and even if I disagree with practically every post I respect what they’re trying to do. It seems to me that they’re up against an institutional disadvantage that runs deeper than just having to defend government rather than criticize it. With luck some years in the wilderness will improve Republican leadership the way it (sort of) did for the Democrats. It will only be good when when the party treats well-intentioned members trying to effect change from the inside like a squeaky wheel rather than like an unhammered nail.
My friends, this small dishonesty has weighed on my conscience long enough. It’s time to come clean. Even by 2007 everyone knew that RedState was a fruitcake factory. They drove John off in, what, 2005? I knew perfectly well how badly the GOP needs to keep stupid, angry people like Erick Erickson on the DL. If Schiavo taught us anything, it’s that Malkin’s wing will steer the party into a traffic barrier and laugh while it burns down with them inside.
So, um, yeah.
Robin G.
Hey, better late than never.
El Cid
You could always just say that what you meant was that you had a general beef with Erick and the Red State Trike Farce.
Incertus
I think I finally figured it out. Erickson et al are Charlie from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” particularly the episode where the gang has designated Charlie as the “Wild Card.” If you haven’t seen the episode, let’s just say it ends with a van filled with garbage cans of gasoline, and Charlie cut the brake line. Why? “Wild card, bitches!” (That’s a quote from the show, for the record.)
Jay C
I’ll make another confession: I actually was, for the longest time, a registered member/commenter at RedState (til my reg got blanked somehow in their server change last year). Not, mind you, that I had ever written a word there in years, in order to avoid the blamstick, but mainly because I thought it would be a useful exercise to at least keep track of what the Other Side were thinking. But no more.
“Thinking” over at RS seems to have been ruled an offense against sensibility: in favor of the mindless echo-chamber repetition of the “approved” talking-points and slogans. All preferably flavored with as much bile as can be produced.
Myself, I think it’s simple jealousy: RedState was started, back in the day, with the ambition of being the “Republican Daily Kos” – and has ended up (the PJM connection notwithstanding) as just another fringe rant-blog; whose links, AFAICT come as much from those who mock/scorn/dismiss it as those who agree with. And for self-righteous ideologues like Erick E., there are few things more purely irritating than having the fringe status of their extremist politics pointed out to them on a daily basis.
Mudge
You can tell he is insane. He said the Democrats would have never backed down from reading the entire bill, just the wimpy Republicans. What universe is he living in? Democrats never threaten anything they will actually do. For example, a reconciliation vote that requires 51 to pass on health care.
Jeff
Wasn’t “The Curmudgeon’s Corner” the original name of this blog?
Singularity
So I’m reading the Curmudgeon’s Corner over there in the Germantown Gazette or whatever, and I see the word “majority” is underlined, so I go ahead to click on the link. What do you know, the undelined word isn’t a link at all! It makes you wonder if old Al there maybe underlined the word to make people think he had underlying data to support his ridiculous assertion. Every poll I’ve seen shows clear majorities favor reforming the health care system. It wouldn’t be the first time a conservative got caught lying.
stickler
I still remember when RedState was going to be the Anti-Kos. Man, good times. And then they started the “blam” festival, approximately 2 weeks after they started up. Blam, blam, blam.
I’d be interested to know how much of their site traffic is just people moseying past to see what new asshattery they’ve posted. Has to be at least 50%.
Violet
@stickler:
I never go there. What’s the “blam” thing?
I do remember your post, Tim F. It was before I was here on a regular basis, though. I think it got linked around – did Sully link to it? The last sentence of that post is true, no matter what kind of nutjobs are at Red State, etc. The Republicans will have to recognize they need to change and change. Or they’ll go the way of the Whigs.
Molly
Oh, Tim. Texas Progressives have been talking like this to the Republicans surrounding us ever since Obama won the election. “It’s OK, it’s OK, of course we’re all together in this, shhh, shhh. Go warm up some milk and go to bed now.”
But we know all of the Repubs down here are batshit crazy. So, let the guilt go.
Nick
About 1/3 of the population views Sarah Palin as the embodiment of their values.
They believe God takes an active role in running the world; I think that if God is taking an active role in human affairs, s/he’s an asshole.
I don’t think you can get much further apart than that.
Joel
Apparently they’re all creaming their pants over a leaked email about a researcher sprucing up his graphs back in ’99.
Jay C
@Violet:
“Blam” (‘Blamming”) (as in “Blam! You’re outta here!!”)is a RedState colloquialism for banning a commenter – typically permanently. It used to be reserved for particularly annoying trolls, but quickly became the standard treatment meted out to anyone who dared question the Wisdom Of The Echo-Chamber – or pushed any discussion outside of fervent agreement with whatever the RW talking-point-of-the-day was.
CalD
At the risk of sounding unhip, what’s DL mean?
Zzyzx
@CalD: the down low.
Zzyzx
…or the Disabled List…
JMC in the ATL
DL = Down Low
“On the Down Low” originated as a term used to describe closeted (typically with a wife or girlfriend to maintain appearances) black men.
urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=on+the+down+low
CalD
Ah. Thanks!
Liberty60
I also had an account at RedState, and attempted to talk reason to them. No, really, I did.
I wrote a couple of diary entries, on the need for Republicans to propose a balanced budget (and how that would require a painful choice involving defense cuts and tax increases), another one about how conservatives should demand a restriction of government power such as the NSA surveillance and indefinite detentions…
My account seems to have been cut off. Apparently I was an unhammered nail.
What is ironic is that the entries were virtually carbon copies of Reagan stump speeches from the 1970’s- back when he was talking about a Balance Budget Amendment to the Constitution, and warning of encroaching government power.
Chad N Freude
The Curmudgeon’s Corner offers this insight into how to inform the citizenry about the content of pending legislation:
One pictures millions of citizens intently listening to C-SPAN while 2200 pages of legal language are read in a continuous piece of performance art, at the end exclaiming “Ah, now I understand it!”
CalD
Nice to see the Democrats finally get a little love for their efforts, even it it happens to be from someone who obviously hates them for it.
Tim (The Oher One)
That would be me….
Catsy
@Jay C: This, one hundred percent.
Redstate was going to be the anti-Kos. IIRC they even started out on Scoop.
This was a failed idea from the beginning. First of all, DK grew somewhat organically–Kos didn’t set out to create what it has now become, he made a place for people to talk and they did. You can’t manufacture that.
Second, and possibly more importantly, the aspects of the DK community that give it its strength and vitality are the antithesis of the top-down authoritarianism that has infected the GOP.
There was a time I used to comment there, too. There was even a time I enjoyed it. It just got too batshit insane. These people are so detached from reality that you can’t even communicate with them–no discussion is possible when the parties are not even dealing with the same set of facts.
They’re in a death spiral now. The more they realize how irrelevant they’ve become, the angrier and more hysterical they get. It’s kind of fun to watch, but it makes them impossible to engage in discourse. And that lunatic anger and hysteria really turns off non-insane people who don’t already agree with them.
steve
Heh, “Tim in SF?” Why didn’t you just put “Tim F?”
You should invite Al over here for a friendly debate: his “facts” against our facts.