A rumor of war

NOT EVERYONE loves the smell of napalm in the morning.

That apparently includes progressive thinker Freddie DeBoer. He recently lamented on L'Hote: “I am not looking forward to the next election cycle … The ‘you're either with us or you're with the terrorists’ certainty of those who insist that anyone on the left has to vote for Obama is already getting ginned up.”

“Yer either fer us or agin us?” It seems there’s a war on – between liberals, no less. As in progressive against progressive. The Daily Kossacks vs. the Barack Brigades. The Battle of the Blue and the Blue.

Here’s how Balloon Juice (1st Armored Obama Division) characterized the growing rift between “Netroots Nation” (whiny far leftists) and the legions of “Obots” (irate Obama loyalists):

Due to the growing sense that places like FireDogLake, Salon, and Daily Kos seemed more invested in endlessly criticizing the president than promoting a useful discussion about the ways in which liberals could advance their policy goals, people who were tired of surrounding themselves with nothing but negative commentary decided to branch off and form their own blogs. In these smaller communities, it is not considered a character flaw to express one’s support for the president. In these smaller communities, one does not have to qualify every expression of support for the president with “but I don’t agree with everything that he does.”

It is in these smaller communities that those of us who know how to walk and chew gum at the same time are able to support the president generally, while not supporting each of his policies specifically. It is in these smaller communities that people who, ironically, refuse to see everything in “black and white” are comfortable with infinite shades of gray.

Sorry Goose, as Maverick would say, but it's time to buzz the tower: The Dirty Daily Kos Dozen? The Battle of FireDogLake? Huffington's Heroes? The Seige at Salon.com? Barack's Inglourious Basterds? Operation Obama-Overlord? Hah! Don’t get me started.