Right-Wing Blogosphere Meltdown Over Immigration Issues

We've all witnessed the tremendous divide brought to the public stage in America over the complex issues that surround the immigration debate. It's been nasty, brutish and anything but short (apologies to Thomas Hobbes). Now we find that the debate and derision has also made its way to the right-wing blogosphere in a very public way as well.

Lorie Byrd, a guest blogger at PoliPundit.com revealed this last nite on her personal blog:

I just posted the following at Polpundit:

It is 1 a.m. and I still have a ton of things to do before I can go to bed and a child up with a fever for the second night in a row, but if I don't post this now, it might not get posted. Forgive me if this is a bit rambling or unclear. I am trying hard to choose my words carefully so that I don't misrepresent anything anyone has said or misquote anyone.

The fact is that I believe this is the last time I will be blogging at Polipundit.

I received a lengthy email from Polipundit tonight alerting us to an editorial policy change that included the following: "From now on, every blogger at PoliPundit.com will either agree with me completely on the immigration issue, or not blog at PoliPundit.com." I would provide additional context, but Polipundit has asked that the contents of our emails not be disclosed publicly and I think that is a fair request. There has been plenty written in the posts over the past week alone to let readers figure out what happened. Polipundit ended a later email with this: "It's over. The group-blogging experiment was nice while it lasted, but we have different priorities now. It's time to go our own separate ways."

PoliPundit replied:

Lorie was well aware that we were having a private discussion. Yet she saw fit to quote from my e-mails in public, without adequate context. She has forced me to temporarily revoke everyone’s posting privileges, so that we can go back and have a discussion in private.

He goes on to complain about the fact that, although he had given his guest bloggers leeway when they disagreed with him about the immigration issues, he's reached the point where he can basically no longer tolerate any dissent. He writes:

Suppose three out of four columnists at the Old York Times were pro-Republican. You can bet publisher “Pinch” Sulzberger would do something about that right quick.

Someone might want to tell him that Sulzberger died last week. Beyond that, he completely fails to acknowledge that the Times actually does offer a variety of political views from different columnists who disagree with each other on a daily basis. So, that analogy falls flat on its face.

PoliPundit's site has simply fallen prey to what so many community blogs do: they've become carefully managed gated cyber communities that tolerate very little dissent from the conventionally agreed to wisdom of the day as espoused by the blog's founder. Post a divergent opinion and you'll quickly be labeled a troll or an operative of whichever party is opposed to the site's beliefs. That makes for stifled debate and, while it may serve the members of those communities to feel all warm and fuzzy about their shared beliefs, it does nothing to address crucial issues that need serious attention in the broader sense of real discussions about the policies that divide those on the political spectrum. They simply become, in the words of Dr Phil, 'a safe place to fall'.

That's a nice sentiment but, in the scheme of things, it's not an effective way to heal the wounds of a population so torn apart by political arguments that consistently spill out onto the streets week after week. If members of the same party cannot challenge each other in an open and brutally honest way in online discussions, what hope is there for the country as a whole?

Perhaps I give the blogs far too much credit and the people out there beyond cyberspace will actually be able to find ways to come together in the spirit of fearless compromise. But if blogs intend to claim power to impact the tone of public debate, they have a responsibility to set an encouraging example - something I have yet to find on party-specific American community blogs.

Whether it's via displays of excessive rage, tunnel-vision or just a preference to preach to the hungry choir to the exclusion of others who might actually be swayed by reasoned arguments, both the left and right-wing party blogs seem quite content to keep doing what they believe has worked to this point. But, when you step away from those pages and look at the realities of the public expression of issues, like the immigration debate, there must be dissent and there must be tolerance for differing opinions if progress is ever expected to be made.