MK Ham Sends One To The Bleachers

Offhand, I'd say Mary Katherine Ham has hit a bases loaded home run with this post. Writing about the differences in the way the left and the right approach the blogosphere and bloggers one doesn't always agree with.

I disagree with Glenn Reynolds. Not on everything, but on some things.

Support for the war in Iraq as an important battleground in the War on Terror? Ditto, Glenn. Unequivocal backing of the notion that Americans should have the right to pack heat? I’m with you. A general respect for the free market and the innovations, efficiency, and gifts it visits upon us? Yep, there again.

On the stem-cell debate and other social issues, I can’t say the same. And, the “I had an abortion” T-shirt is not a fashion choice I would have made.

But here’s the thing. If you were to ask me if he’s with me or against me– if you were to say, politically speaking, “is he on your team?”– I’d say yes. Yes, the politically hybrid, libertarianish law professor who threatens to vote Democrat if they’d only give him something to work with on national security is on my team.

I feel the same way about a long list of other libertarianish political hybrids who vocally disagree with me on social issues—folks like Ann Althouse and Jeff Goldstein, both of whose blogs I consider favorites. And, I think most of the Right blogosphere feels the same way, even though many right bloggers are more conservative than these three writers. Their traffic numbers certainly reflect acceptance and popularity among righty blog-readers.

I think she's absolutely got this one right. I link to plenty of people that I do not always agree with on every single point. Now comparing that to the treatment the left gives, the differences are glaring.

Left blogger Crooked Timber attributes such treatment of Althouse to the fact that she’s perceived, not as a political moderate, but as a moderate conservative. That may be, but I tried to imagine myself perceiving folks like Armed Liberal of Winds of Change, or Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft, both of whom can probably be rightly considered moderate liberals, as out-and-out political enemies to be only attacked, never embraced. Instead, I serve with those two on a Blogger Board of Contributors for the Examiner, and all of us were recruited for the board by a conservative blogger.

I can’t help but think that, as blogs continue to become a bigger part of electoral politics and the parties inevitably become more practiced at working with them, this difference in approach doesn’t bode well for Democrats. As much as the Left blogosphere likes to accuse the whole center-right of existing only to parrot the command-and-control messages of Chimpy McBushitler, it is the Left blogosphere that has seemed so intent on alienating itself and the Democratic Party from political hybrids and moderate Democrats of late, and doing so in dramatic, nasty fashion.

Jeff Goldstein gets vile sexual comments about his toddler and Joe Lieberman gets a new nickname—“Rape Gurney Joe.”

The other thing I have noticed is that if I post something critical of Bush or the Republicans (and I do every now and again) my comments don't see a major increase. I may get a few minor disagreements, but nothing really out of the ordinary. If I post something critical of something the left holds dear, my comment queue will start smoking under the increased load. And there are a LOT of vitriolic comments. Many cross over into obscene (and get deleted). This has happened several times when Peter Daou linked one of my posts. Mary Katherine concludes this way:

If politically hybrid bloggers can be seen as the swing voters of the blogosphere—if a Jeff Goldstein is a guy who could conceivably be convinced to vote the other way if the Dems would assuage his doubts on certain issues—who do you think is more convincing showing up on his virtual doorstep?

Deborah Frisch, the liberal who threatens his child, or Right-Wing Sparkle, the conservative who has read his site for years and comes to his defense upon Frisch’s attack?

When you’re knocking on doors at election time, burning dog poo has never been known to get out the vote.

I think she's exactly right. The vitriolic approach seldom persuades. It just corrodes.

Read the whole thing, it's a great post.