Friday, October 29, 2010

"Chuck for" Done? Probably So

I was going to address Michael in comments, and moved it here once I saw the thing exploding in size.

We're contemporaries then. That being so, we've both watched the same slide right in this country. Bill Clinton was the best Republican President this country has had since Eisenhower. Now that this has resulted in what we've got today the voters propose to not only go back to the crew responsible, but go even nuttier.

Four years of Democratic dominance in Congress and two with the WH results in this? People who don't think enough was done haven't bothered to look at the historic GOP crap in the Senate much less the House nitwits. I have no reason to think the GOP will take the Senate, but consider the mess that exists with their minority now and add 6 years worth of more nut cases than now with the Democrats having more seats up in 2 years than the GOP.

I was pretty left in the 60's, and I don't mean anything near the center of the time. Over time I've moved rightward from there and the result of that drift on my part is to find myself defined as a part of the very left, yet. In respect to future outcomes I was probably more correct then, but realism intruded. It hasn't escaped my notice that the House has passed bills nor that the Senate Democratic Caucus contains forty some liberal or progressive members. I gave up a long time ago the idea that things aligning with my thinking would happen but it is nice that so many in Congress will at least glance in my direction. The outcome of that is something like the health care bill that passed GOP muster as an alternative to Hillarycare. The Democrats managed to do what the GOP proposed doing over a decade ago - huh? I'm not throwing rocks at Democrats, just pointing out the reality.

I'm beginning to view myself as the 'enabler' in an alcoholic family, always justifying while trying to swim upstream against futility. It doesn't seem reasonable to continue as one of the exceptions in the electorate who stays informed and takes an active part on behalf of candidates when the electorate is what it is. This doesn't really reflect the outlook of a decade of crap policies driven by nutcases, it is a matter of the continuation of St Ronnie's crap and that involves a lot more than a decade and it isn't just about Teabaggery. The teatards aren't something new, it is the same 27% that's been the guts of the GOP since at least Nixon so it isn't about them. It's about the other mid-20% who'll go their direction. It just plain and simple isn't about the nuts who have always been amongst us.

Short of the GOP actually taking the House or Senate I don't see any real significant outcomes nationally though governors will mean more in a census year. The legislative stranglehold of the Senate won't change and what the House does means squat in the face of that. There is a (D) President for at least another 2 years (who may understand now what "bipartisan" actually means). In the face of real evidence for many decades I've held on to the belief that what I've tried has a point, now I'm just tired and disgusted.

I was attracted to blogging because I saw it as a method of not only publishing alternative opinion and analysis but also having a public dialogue about that. This blog is pretty much a failure at that. Before my posting became sporadic readership of current posts had fallen to less than thirty per day and comments were virtually non-existent. With the only real feedback to my efforts being taking a look at Sitemeter, and that declining, bothering with this got a hell of a lot less interesting. It is also pretty obvious that I'm not very interesting to read anymore, I can bump a daily number by blogwhoring on something like Balloon Juice, but that doesn't carry over into readership. There are a few folks who've stuck around for a long time and I thank them.

10 comments:

Constitutional Insurgent said...

Ack!!

I really like your blog! I've seen countless blogs come and go....most of which aren't worth the bandwidth they use. You have more followers than I do. Now I wish I had commented more.

If you go, I hope to see your contributions on the other sites I follow. I'll miss your wit if you close up shop.

Chuck Butcher said...

Half-wit maybe...

Jeff Goob said...

I understand. For me it's been a pleasure; reading your thoughts has been a way to take a pulse to know that there is a heart pumping sanity in the far reaches of Oregon. As a city dweller that's good for me.

realbtl said...

Chuck- I think I know where you're coming from and if you decide to leave I'll miss coming here. Though I confess to a bit of despair myself these days. May be time to hunker down and wait it out. Enjoy the Harley.

Chuck Butcher said...

"Enjoy the Harley."
he says as winter closes in...

Anonymous said...

Chuck, I hope you stay around. I enjoy reading your blog, especially since you're one of the few Democrats out there who "gets it" from my perspective (rural-oriented, hunter, left, etc).

Carl Fisher said...

well now I wish I would have commented instead of just read.

Warren Terra said...

I'm an occasional reader, here because of links from Balloon Juice. I don't really know what the formula is to building an audience and being a successful blogger; from what I can see, very few blogs build a substantial readership, and far fewer achieve any real-world results. If you mostly blog about national issues, it's hard to be distinctive; if you get too local, it's hard for the wider internet to care. If blogging isn't making you happy and isn't getting results, I can understand why you'd hang it up.

I wonder whether it might be possible to seek alternatives: offering essays to local magazines or local (or national) blog collectives, for example - something with more of an established readership.

In any case, as an occasional visitor who's far from a regular reader, I just wanted to say that I have appreciated your voice.

Chuck Butcher said...

Warren,
At one time this thing had around 100 daily readers of current articles, this is down to a handful now. The archives steadily run about that 100.

It really isn't so much about the numbers, it is more about the lack of feedback, this seems a lot like talking to myself and minus a cell phone that makes people wary...

MichaelRyerson said...

I voted today. Admittedly, a small thing but I've known that since I voted for Karla Bjorkland in the 6th grade. I guess some of us noticed earlier than others how small any individual vote is and how unlikely your vote is going to swing the whole shebang. But there you go. A small thing. Spent most of junior high school trying to convince everybody how sophisticated I was by not voting. Became known as a raconteur, sage and commentator on the body politic. Sat off in left field making snide comments about how valuable my time was. It wasn't really all that valuable. I noticed my asshole got bigger. I didn't connect the two things for many years. Elections got bigger too. Now my vote meant even less but shit in Berkeley you'd better goddam vote or forget about getting laid. And you'd better be ready to talk about it, and talk and talk and...ever notice how the frigging candidates seem beholden to some vested interest or another? You know, they don't only answer to the people. Ever notice that?? Shit we ought to do something about that. But it's hard cause they've got such a great head start and they've got all that frigging money. Makes it tough. I'm pretty sure some of you guys might have thought of some of these things before but you know if we're going to find our way out of this mess we've got to start somewheres. yeah, I voted today.