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Concludes Simon Owens. Is it that we're not interested, that we're exhausted, or we just don't think it makes a difference at the moment?
In these parts, traffic is undeniably down, and part of that is probably because posting is down. There are several reasons for that. For my part, it has a lot to do with the dual goals of blogging: writing for its intrinsic benefits (including just the sheer joy of it; researching and writing the Strauss rewrite was great fun), and writing to influence the conversation. The former is always present, but the latter is off the table, so it's harder to justify the effort in the circumstances. They won. As Thomas Brackett Reed might have said, they are going to govern and we are going to watch; there's nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come, including bad ideas whose time has come, and I have a sense that all the blogging, writing, and reasoning in the world won’t change that or divert the majority from this path it has chosen.
Some wound-licking energy-gathering introspection is appropriate after a defeat at the ballot box. But only for a while. At some point it has to change. I greatly admire the late Chief Justice, not least for his patience and forbearance, and I think he provides a good model for what we do next, as bloggers wanting to influence the conversation (and as bloggers who want the conversation to be conducted at a civil volume and tone: "A scream for a scream and we shall all soon be deaf."). After joining the court, then-Justice Rehnquist spent years as a voice in the wilderness, often alone. But he set out carefully, lucidly, and with great intellectual force, a set of principles and positions. Sometimes they carried the day; often they did not; but they laid foundations on which those who came later would build. He fought the battles gracefully, until the times aligned with the man. That kind of patience is a tall order, but it speaks to our circumstances now.
Our RSS feed
Blogging Down
If blogging is down, perhaps many are taking some time to think about and research what is really going on now that negative trends are becoming apparent to many -- like being out of work, like Obama Czaruption, stimulus falling, and more 'junk' on the horizon.
One thing about lots of bloggers is, right or wrong, they like to be on the winning side of things. There's also stuff like Letterman's Palin daughter slander is starting to take it's tool. If Letterman was treated equal to Imus, Letterman would be on the street looking for a new job...
I will actually stick with
I will actually stick with the KISS method of analysis here. A vast number of people in this country only become interested in politics once every four years. Once they have done their duty, they quickly reduce it as part of their daily life. Hence for three years out of every four(maybe two with the way the cycle is now), the wonks have control of the dialog. After that the people come in and see how crazy the wonks are, get active for a while and then claim victory over the wonks and go back to having a life. In the meantime, while fighting the wonks, they just vote one wonk in over another since the wonks are the only ones willing to sacrifice and live the life of a wonk.
People voted, there is a new president. Change occurred. The masses think they did something.
Ok, now I admit that is quite a lot of elitist babble. However, I know that in October, everyone was talking politics. Now, the folks I were talking to politics about have grown bored of it and are back to American Idol, NBA Finals or the upcoming football season. I suspect that the next local election turnout will be insignificantly different from the previous one unless some scandal occurs. Most people just don't care. A lot of the blog traffic was driven by people who were trying to sponge up all the information they could find in the cacophony that was the campaign season. Once it was done, they had no reason to go back.