Markos the Delusional

Markos "Screw Them" Moulitsas has a rather inane post today. That is, more inane than usual:

Kevin Drum and Atrios talk about angst within the conservative blogging world over being ignored, while liberal bloggers are embraced by the establishment.

That's sort of true and not true. As for conservatives being ignored, as Atrios notes, yeah, that part is true. Not only are conservative blogs redundant in the conservative media pantheon, but they have not proven adept at raising money. And in politics, raising money is the first, second, and third most important thing. And in any case, they have plenty of party operatives, like Red State's Mike Krempasky, doing the blogging thing, as well as existing members of their Right Wing Noise machine, like Hugh Hewitt and Malkin. They don't need the citizen riff raff.

At least the little weasel is honest. Politics to Kos are nothing more than raising money. The difference is that conservatives don't need blogs to raise money. They raise money from every day people because they win in the arena of ideas. What Kos doesn't understand is that the readers of his blog, as well as Atrios and others are a finite resource with regard to raising funds. How much can the unemployed really be expected to contribute?

As for being accepted or ignored, I can honestly say that I couldn't care less if I'm accepted by anyone. Read the archives of this blog and you'll see as much criticism of President Bush as praise. Markos continues:

As for Democrats, conservatives like to think that sites like Daily Kos meet weekly with Howard Dean and Harry Reid, as though we're an integral part of some well-oiled machine. And that's also not true. We get their press releases. The same press releases all other media outlets get. And, as far as Reid's office is concerned, they answer any questions I send their way, just like any other media outlet. It's helpful, but hardly earth shattering.

That makes sense, the leading Dems haven't had an original idea in the last five years, just like Kos.

When they do pay attention, most of the time it's naked attempts to score cash from the community, as though we're some kind of ATM. And when they don't ask for money, and try to tackle an issue, parts of the blogosphere erupt in hysterics. You'd think Obama killed everyone's first born to hear some of you wail about his diary. There's a fine line between reasoned discussion and attacks, so if you're a Democratic politician, you sort of have to be a masochist to try and engage the netroots in discussion.

That's because most of the readers of Kos' blog are psycho lefties.

[...]So liberal bloggers are currently more salient to the future of the progressive movement than is the case in the conservative side. Conservative bloggers on the other hand, especially those not already plugged into their media machine, are simple redundant. There are other media outlets that promote their message better (like Drudge on the internet), and there are other mechanisms that organize better (like the religious right). So what exactly do they bring to the table not already covered by someone else? Not much.

We bring something to the table that neither Kos nor Atrios can dream of bringing; change. Conservative and Libertarian bloggers do not follow any line except the line of common sense and intellectual honesty. If the president is wrong, you'll hear it on the rightish blogs. If Nancy Pelosi or Cindy Sheehan say something stupid, the left blogs either ignore it or worse yet, exult it.

By the way, thanks to Kos, 16 former politicians are now in another line of work. That is how much the liberal blogs mean to politicians.