The Left Keeps Trying

Arianna Huffington has recently started a celebrity-laden group blog. Ned Rice reviews this latest contribution to our virtual discussion world, as as well as some old technology attempts by the Left to "get their message out".

Apart from its larcenous origins and hit-or-miss content the other glaring weakness of "The Huffington Post" is that it's pretty much what sources like N.P.R., the A.P., and most TV networks already offer: a conventional left-of-center perspective with a few conservative voices tossed in for window dressing.

With this new blog, as well as AirAmerica, and Al Gore's proposed liberal network, the Left continues to believe that if only they could get their message out, people would vote for them. It seems, though that the key problem for the Left is not "getting their message out", but actually getting a message that people actually support.

Attention Democrats: the American people have heard your message loud and clear, and the more they hear of it the less they like it. You can launch all the feeble new media ventures you like ("Hey, how about a liberal 'zine? That'll turn this thing around!"). You can spend as much of George Soros's fortune as he's stupid enough to part with. You can even get Margaret Cho to come back out of the closet and denounce President Bush again - or did she do that already? Thing is, until you advance a political philosophy that has some sort of connection with mainstream America you might just as well get used to being the minority party no matter how many New Media outlets you horn in on.