There’s been talk about the reluctance of the big liberal bloggers (Daily Kos, etc.) to take on the Israel/Lebanon issue. Sullivan thinks they’re “wimping out.” Kos insists, “we’re stuck with a war that will not end in any forseable [sic] future. It doesn’t matter what we bloggers say.” Kevin Drum notes: “The conflict is fantastically complex, and the partisans on both sides are mostly people who have been following events with fanatical attention to detail for many decades. Ordinary observers can hardly compete in this atmosphere….” And so on.
Points like these may have some validity, but I think the underlying truth is simpler. The big-gun bloggers don’t want to undermine Democratic candidates [update: incumbents as well], the vast majority of whom are in lock-step with the don’t-pressure-Israel consensus. A reader of Sullivan’s remarked that “to take the mainstream Democratic line of say, Chuck Schumer, would be to seriously alienate a chunk of their readership.” But to take a line to the left of Schumer may alienate even more. So silence is golden.
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