June 28, 2003

The Link Patrol

Michele has landed herself in the middle of another de-linking fix, this time owing to some rather less than adulatory comments about Strom Thurmond.

I, like many others, first discovered Michele's blog via an InstaPundit post about the last round of Ceremonial De-Linking of A Small Victory in November 2002.

Back then it was "liberals," upset about her support for the war on terror mostly, who held the De-Linking Ceremonies. ("I'm sorry, but I find I can no longer remain silent. I am second to none in my support for free speech and the free exchange of ideas, within reason. But I cannot in good conscience continue to engage in dialogue with someone who disagrees with my position on such an important matter. Therefore, it is with a heavy heart and after a great deal of painful soul-searching, that I have decided to take the ultimate step-- which I do not take lightly-- of removing from the pure and noble sidebar of my hallowed and sacred weblog the tiny strand of html that, in happier days, once led to the site of a former friend who suddenly turned into an insane maniac. And as my Will, so mote it be..." You know, that sort of thing.)

Now it's a right-wing blogger who questions the bona fides of "self-professing conservative" Michele because she dared to refer to Thurmond as "100 year old racist rubbish." So conservatism means Up with Strom, does it? OK.

There is a certain sort of person who can't bear the thought that there might be anyone, anywhere, who might disagree with any aspect of his or her precious world-view. Such sociopaths are widely distributed across the political spectrum, though here in the San Francisco Bay Area the sample is skewed, and you tend to encounter more of them among self-proclaimed "liberals" than among self-proclaimed "conservatives."

Speaking as a determined centrist whose fervent wish it has long been to be kicked out of both clubs, it seems to me that the compulsion to seek out heretics rather than converts, to see your mission as one of exposing apostasy within your ranks, purging dissenters and winnowing down the mailing list till it includes only certifiably pure ideologues afflicts the "liberals" more often than the "conservatives" these days. It was not always thus, certainly, nor is it always the case now, as we see.

"Another self-professing conservative and blogger - A Small Victory - trashes Thurmond and in the process gets her link yanked from our list." With enough diligence, I'm sure this list can be limited to people with nice things to say about Strom. All it requires is ceaseless vigilance. Best of luck.

The Backcountry Conservative can do anything he wants with his own club, obviously. (For my part, I tend to agree with the Mark Graham assessment that he excerpts with qualified approval.)

But it seems to me that a house that demands public deference to Strom Thurmond as the price of entry is destined to be a very small tent indeed.

And you'll miss Michele. She's a lot of fun.

UPDATE: As J. Quinton points out, I can't even get Michael Graham's name right. Oops, I suck. Michael Graham's name is Michael Graham, and he has some great stuff on his blog.

Posted by Dr. Frank at June 28, 2003 07:02 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Heh. Michelle is a lightning rod for these excommunication dramas. But who can stay mad at her for long? She IS too much fun.

Posted by: JB at June 28, 2003 07:48 PM

michele rocks the house
i love her bravery
that she was willing to lose her liberal readers
by speaking her mind about the war
and is willing to lose her right wing readers
by speaking her mind about stom-boli
ive been going thru a mini version of this
as a liberal democrat out gay woman
i have had a lot to say
that libs and dems love
but then the suicide bombers started
blowing up babies in israel
and i lashed out in a fury at them
then september 11th happened
and i had about as much patience for moslem fundamentalists
as say moslem fundamentalists do for women
so suddenly i was a traitor to my lib/dem pals
and getting fan mail from right wingers
well for the last couple of weeks
ive had a lot to say about gay rights
and by the way
hurray for the 86/ing of those ridiculous anti-gay sex laws
i am loving seeing the right wingers
take one up the poop shoot
no pun intended
but you know what
my traffic is way down
and i think its all the right wingers
abandoning ship
shit
you really cant please everybody
and if you try
then you really cant write
from your heart
and you really cant write the truth
so bugger it all
i say
and meanwhile
michele
is not a small victory
she's a huge one
she's brave and fresh and fierce
and i hope she keeps on
saying what she thinks
regardless of whether or not we agree with her

yeah baby

Posted by: rossi at June 28, 2003 08:40 PM

Agreed. I'm tempted to (quietly) delink her every time she slams Ann Coulter (I take Misha's side of *that* fight), but she *is* a lot of fun. Meanwhile we seem to have found the one person on the planet with a strong opinon about Strom Thurmond (I've tended to think of him more as a cheap death pool pick than a person ;)

Posted by: Ian S. at June 28, 2003 09:21 PM

I've always had a knack for alienating people with my big mouth.

Same as it ever was, I suppose.

Thanks for the kind words, Frank and Rossi.

Ian, you delink me, I'll put a hex on you.

Posted by: Michele at June 28, 2003 09:30 PM

Michele, you're beautiful when you're mad.

I learned from the Backcountry Conservative's bio that he's around ten years younger than me, give or take. Is there a word for the feeling you get when you realize that a whippersnapper younger than you has managed to be even more stuffy and curmudgeonly than you are yourself, hard though you may have worked at it? I ask only as someone who has frequently aroused that sentiment amongst my own elders. A German word maybe.

This guy was clearly extremely fond of Thurmond, held him in high esteem and doesn't like people mocking him on the occasion of his passing. That's understandable, though with a notorious figure like Thurmond, it's only to be expected. But I can understand him blowing his stack a bit, given these perhaps astonishing but clearly sincere sentiments. He was wrong (and rather ungallant) to trash Michele and cast aspersions on her sawdust, but let's be kind and say she was only in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But here's a peculiar quote from the Backcountry Conservative's Strom RIP post (http://www.jquinton.com/archives/000039.html#more):

"In closing, I would just like to remind Lindsey Graham or someone else in the Senate to remember the baseball bat before they leave Washington and head to Edgefield for the funeral."

Remember the baseball bat? What, is there gonna be a rumble or something?

Posted by: Dr. Frank at June 29, 2003 12:41 AM

My ressentiments precisely.

It's kind of dated, but Walker Percy's Tom More captures the flavor of the predicament quite elegantly, I think.

*runs to bookshelf*

"Conservatives have begun to fall victim to unseasonable rages, delusions of conspiracies, high blood pressure, and large-bowel complaints.

Liberals are more apt to contract sexual impotence, morning terror, and a feeling of abstraction of the self from itself.

...It is my misfortune--and blessing--that I suffer from both liberal and conservative complaints, e.g., both morning terror and large-bowel disorders, excessive abstraction and unseasonable rages, alternating impotence and satyriasis. So that at one and the same time I have great sympathy for my patients and lead a fairly miserable life."

So I dedicate this quote to Blogs of War and A Small Victory. ;-)

Posted by: spacetoast at June 29, 2003 01:38 AM

It's really hard to believe that anyone would evoke as strong emotions as Strom Thurmond apparently does. I mean, the guy has the benefit of defaulting to the fact he's held about every position possibly on every issue.

Posted by: Matt from Vegas at June 29, 2003 03:23 AM

As I told Dr. Frank over on my blog... the baseball bat line refers to a quote made by John Tower about Strom Thurmond. The bat in question supposedly hangs in the Strom Thurmond Room of the U.S. Senate. MichaelGraham.com has more details or you can google it. I first heard about it in Ol' Strom, the unauthorized biography.

Posted by: Jeff Quinton at June 30, 2003 07:26 AM