I spent a few hours last night trawling through blogland. I was using BlogExplosion.com which serves up a vaguely random selection of its registered blogs. Vaguely random in that the more active members are more likely to be served up, but that's random enough for me.
It was an interesting experience. I was surprised at how many politically partisan sites there are. Probably 40% that I visited were vitriolic, equally split left and right. But not evenly spread across the spectrum. It was generally either impeach Bush, or burn the ACLU at the stake.
Impeach Bush? Why? I am not overly familiar with the US constitution, since it marks the point at which Blighty lost its best colony, but I understand that there is a presidential election every four years. This election is essentially to choose a leader for the next four year, but is also effectively a chance to pass judgement on the previous leader.
In the meantime impeachment is available in extremis, in cases of corruption or complete unsuitability for office. The debate about Bush's competence rages, but this is not an impeachment matter, its an electoral matter.
As for the ACLU, I am even less knowledgeable, but I am confused at the repeated charge that they are anti-American. Being made up of American citizen, and using a non-violent approach, they seem to be similar to any other lobbying group, be it organised labour, church groups, or campaigning llama farmers. Possibly all of these groups are anti-American, but I suspect that really they are all part of the noble tradition of public debate.
Finally I was struck by the banner 'Make Liberalism History'. I looked up the word Liberalism - 'A political theory founded on the natural goodness of humans and the autonomy of the individual and favoring civil and political liberties, government by law with the consent of the governed, and protection from arbitrary authority.'
From browsing the site on which I found this banner, I am fairly sure that the owner was all for Liberalism, but has somehow become confused about its meaning and now thinks it means non-Republican. America is all about liberalism. The founding fathers left England in order to find political and social freedom, and the bulk of America's history has been about upholding the rights of the individual over those of the state. Without America's example, we old-world Europeans would not have many of the freedoms we have today. So how did Liberal become such a misused term? It is all most strange.
My other conclusions on my travels were that my site needs a makeover, the first stage of which has already taken place, and that hiding between all the political sites there are some particularly fine blogs. I don't have time to read more than a few, so the challenge will be to select a handful to follow out of the many many worthy candidates.
More on which later, after some house-hunting.
