The lefty blogosphere's little secret

This is something I was thinking about yesterday, while writing about Peter Vierek and the "resemblance" that once existed between the moderate left and the moderate right. Writes the estimable Digby.

It hasn't always been like this. The little secret about most of "Left Blogistan" is that we're not that far left: actually most of the folks I read are moderates or moderate liberals. Need an example? Atrios will do, not to mention the brilliant Digby. In truth, many of us in "Left Blogistan" don't have much patience with radicalism, socialism, revolution, class analyses. As for social mores, few of us live the frisky, often reckless, lives enjoyed by so many rightwing priests and GOP bigwigs. It is an indication of just how far right the discourse has become that Kristof is considered a thoughtful left-wing commentator and that Krugman - a pro-globalization Reagan official - is dubbed a radical leftist.

Now back when moderate liberals were actually provided regular access to the mass media, there would have been no problem labelling treasonable behavior as exactly that. Today, since no one "reasonable" can use that word -unless you're on the right, of course- the moral outrage all Americans should feel about this exposure never happens. And so it goes.

Yup, "mainstream" political discourse has been pushed so far to the right that criticising your government's decision to go to war without manifest cause is treasonous, while unmasking a covert CIA agent is "just politics."

And now that I mention it, shouldn't someone take photoshop away from these radical hate America-ers?