In a second, I'll get to why I'm putting up a political blogroll in this post.
But first, I'd like to take a moment to answer a question I've received more than once:
Yes, I'm a politics junkie. No, I don't expect you to be. Nor should you have to be to understand or play a role in making The Future (or whatever the hell we're calling it this week).
But you should pay attention to politics. Few things in life seem more boring and meaningless to your everyday existence until they emerge out of the shadows and really, truly, fuck you over. Or until you realize how nasty things would be if some long-dead manipulative bastards and idealists hadn't managed to actually wring something good out of the process once in awhile.
I'm also not talking about politics at the theoretical level: that's important, but plenty of futurists and intellectuals try to unravel it. I'm talking about politics at the "I fucked you proper to get my bill through" level; you know, the one that matters most and the one that often gets the shortest shrift.
Yes, it is messy. Extremely so. Is it a circus? Three-ring. A cesspit? Sure, but show me an era of civil, rational decision-making in politics, and I'll show you a myth.
Politics is the method by which massive groups of a social species work out who wields power, over what and how they do it. Of course it's extremely ugly. The fact that it doesn't descend into bloodbath, everywhere, on an everyday basis is a miracle.
People on all sides love the idea of an engaged citizenry; it's refreshing to think that if only we and our friends could truly get into the political process, it would change things.
The dirty secret is that many parts of the political process are more open to scrutiny now than at few times before (though they could, and should, be far more open still) but that most people don't care. Love of an engaged citizenry usually dies in the fifth hour of a city council meeting. Reveal to said budding activist that they will have to sit through at least six more such sessions before they can get a damn thing done and odds are they will run screaming from the room. I can't blame them.
The good news is that our online age does make it more possible than ever to quickly take in much of the basic gist of what's going on, at the national, regional or local level.
Below is how I get a lot of my information and viewpoints about the lurid struggles that shape our world. Below are writers who manage the difficult task of keeping it readable, succinct and even funny. For those of you who may not share my enthusiasm, but still want to follow the struggles shaping your lives, this is a good place to start.
I've tried to include those from most ideological stripes (labeled for your convenience), as well as those who simply do damn good analysis. Feel free to suggest others. I don't claim for this list to be complete. It doesn't include those who write about politics rarely or at the grand level, even if they do so brilliantly. I've intentionally tried to limit this to those who eat, sleep and breathe the stuff.
So, without further ado.
Andrew Sullivan (Iconoclastic Conservative) Sullivan has one of the oldest and most widely-read political blogs on the web. With reason, too. While he's prone to ranting, he's also smart, fast and a damn compelling writer. He takes any perspective with a brain in its head seriously, so this makes for a good starting point to find other intelligent representatives of various ideological stripes.
While unabashedly conservative (though having had a very public falling out with the GOP), Sullivan was a relentless voice against torture at Bush's height and fought hard for gay marriage years before many believed it was attainable. The guy deserves respect.538 (Analytical/Various shades of Left) Stats play a massive role in political argument, right down to the individual level. That said, few people really understand them. Fivethirtyeight's Nate Silver does, fortunately. The site began doing analysis for the 2008 Presidential election, but Silver has turned his talents to quickly analyzing voting patterns and probabilities on a whole range of issues.
An excellent place to get good information to cut through the bullshit. While Silver and his many co-contributors make no bones about their personal political leanings, their analysis is solid, as evidenced by a slew of successful predictions. The next time you hear someone quote a dubious stat as gospel, check here.
Salon (Center-Left) While somewhat decayed from its heyday (Jesus f'in Christ, they're still paying Camilla Paglia to write?!), Salon still has some superb political news and writing, especially in their longer form exposes. Hell, this site is worth it just for their strong array of associated blogs, especially Broadsheet, Andrew Leonard and Glenn Greenwald.
Ta-Nehisi Coates (Liberal) The Atlantic's newest addition. In a publication that, for all its quality, has a reputation for being something of an extremely upper-class media bubble, it's a welcome one too. Coates jokes that he's the first black man to work there since Frederick Douglass, and he's not far off. Far more importantly, he's an absolute badass journalist and an excellent commentator on the massive cultural shifts undergoing our society. Essential reading on any number of fronts.
Reason (Libertarian Conservative) If you're looking for what remains of an intellectual right, this is a good place to start. Reason's online site still boasts the best libertarian and conservative critiques around (including those of other conservatives). Their commentators often bring up economic or civil liberties issues in particular depth. Worth a read, especially when you disagree with them.
Huffington Post (Liberal) A mixed bag, but when they're good, they're good (i.e. Nico Pitney's Green Revolution reporting). The Huffington Post puts a wide range of (mostly) leftist commentators under one roof, as well as providing some solid breaking news coverage.
Obsidian Wings (All over the map) The masthead reads "This is the Voice of Moderation. I wouldn't go so far as to say we've actually SEIZED the radio station..." What follows is a collection of some of the smartest analysis around. Obsidian Wings manages to balance enthusiastic argument with the amazing ability of its stable of writers to pull fully formed analysis seemingly out of their asses. Hilzoy (the pseudonym of bioethics and poli-theory prof Hilary Bok) is probably the best, but there's not a weak contributor in the lot.
An especially good blog for providing context to the legal, military and legislative background behind daily political struggles.
Hullabaloo (Ardent Liberal) Perhaps the looming picture of Network's Howard Beale should be a clue, but Digby isn't the sort of woman who pulls her punches. More power to her: a read through Hullabaloo is an example of why it's important to keep being aggressive in politics. Even seemingly small struggles matter, and hold lives in the balance. Stay angry.
Matthew Yglesias (Philosophical Liberal) Yglesias will shift rapidly back and forth between legislative politics, urban living and the nasty innards of getting ideas into law. All the more valuable because he started out as a more pure idealist, and has made the transition to a great commentator/analyzer of our current predicaments.
Comments