Monday, October 17, 2005

Polemicizing against ghosts

David Sirota has an interesting but puzzling article out about narrow partisanship overwhelming issues among Democratic Party activists and bloggers who think of themselves more as "the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party" rather than as DLCer triangulators: Partisan War Syndrome - The left falls victim to a debilitating affliction In These Times 10/17/05.

Several things in the article resonated with me, e.g., why is Hillary Clinton still calling for escalation in the Iraq War?

But after pages of his criticisms of the lack of issue-orientation among many Democratic "progessives," I was still left not knowing really who he was talking about.  The only reference to a specific publication or blogger or group that he makes is to Mother Jones magazine, and that on one very specific electoral contest.

What's the good of a long polemic if you're left at the end of it not knowing who it's polemicizing against?

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