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Yes, it’s Happy Hollandaise time again here at Hullabaloo and I hope you will bear with me as I do a little reminiscing about the last 20 years of writing this blog. It’s still amazing to me that it’s still going strong, but here we are.
When I first started writing this thing I was part of a burgeoning new community we called the liberal blogosphere. Back in 2003, most bloggers were right wingers, called “war bloggers” for obvious reasons. We provided some balance to the big debates that were starting to flourish on the internet.
It was a heady time. We quickly formed online friendships and organized around politicians and political causes and the whole concept of online activism took shape in those early years. Early bloggers like me were treated like minor celebrities which was fun.
But I don’t miss those days because it was also a terrible time. When I started, the Iraq war was about to begin and we all knew what a nightmare it was going to be. The media was beside itself with excitement, “embedding” with the military, dressed in Prada khakis and generally making absolute fools of themselves. We pushed back but it was of little use. The country was awash in jingoism and blood lust and there was just no stopping it.
It’s easy to forget all that now because of the lunacy that has overtaken our politics. We are now dealing with an internal threat from domestic terrorism that’s complicated and difficult to prosecute. Everything feels tremendously unstable, mainly because it is. But that doesn’t mean it was better then. In fact, our troubles today can largely be traced to that period and the one that came just before it. Our politics have been dissolving into chaos for quite a while and whenever a world shaking event like 9/11 or the financial crisis or a global pandemic happens it weakens just a little bit more. We’re on shaky ground.
Nonetheless, I’m always a little bit surprised at how resilient we actually are. Yes, the right has been going off the rails for decades now, becoming more extreme and dangerous. But the opposition has not given up and, in fact, I see more sophisticated tactics and strategy from the center and the left than I have ever seen in my lifetime which is encouraging. And it’s been done largely by refusing to sacrifice the idealism and inspiration that animate the better angels of our nature. The advances we see in our culture toward inclusion and diversity are furiously opposed by the neo-fascist right, of course. But instead of crawling back into the easy “don’t make trouble” mode, the center and left have decided to harness the idealism to create energy and momentum.
Right now, we are still in something of a stalemate. And things could go sideways in an instant. But I’m actually feeling encouraged at the moment. This last election wasn’t a gimme and the “tired old donkeys” managed to hold back the red tide once again.
I’d like to think that some of us who have been toiling away for the past couple of decades in this new medium, trying desperately to get the country to wake up and smell the fascism have played a tiny part in all that.
These next two years are going to be uhm … eventful, to say the least. I think we have something to offer here at Hullabaloo, especially considering the unfortunate churning that’s going on in social media. If you feel the same and would like to help us keep going, we would be most grateful for your support.
Happy Hollandaise everyone!