Left Side of Blogosphere Silent on Cartoon Violence

It is striking how the "progressive" side of the blogosphere has virtually ignored the manufactured protest and violence in the Muslim world over the cartoons published in Denmark. The silence is deafening. Meanwhile, on the right, discussion of the threat posed by the attempt of Islamists to silence any western media content that offends them is rampant and daily. In a quick review of Daily Kos, Talking Points, Anti-Dotal and Matt Yglesias reveals that only Yglesias has posted on this issue and then only to dispute Andrew Sullivan's assertion that the reactions in the Muslim world should force liberals to rethink their opposition to the Bush and Blair foreign policies.

None of these liberal bloggers apparently see any significant threat to the concept of free speech, a cornerstone of liberal democracy, in the events in the middle east. Neither have they seen fit to write about why they think the reaction of the right side bloggers is wrong or overblown, if they in fact believe that to be the case. They continue to write exclusively about the perceived errors, crimes and various sins of the Bush administration. I am forced to conclude that if a Democrat were elected to the White House in 2008 these bloggers, after a suitable period of gloating, would loose the only passion that keeps them motivated to write and would soon drift off into the MSM, think tanks and/or the staff of the new president.

A quote by the poet Robert Frost may be apt: "A liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel."