Response to What’s Wrong With the Florida Progressive Blogosphere?

Kenneth Quinnell posted his thoughts on what is wrong with the Florida Progressive blogosphere. I thought of something Litbrit and I have discussed about the lack of a progressive Tampa blog community. I'm pass the point of giving a shit of trying to change the Tampa blogosphere. Litbrit has a more positive outlook.

There are essentially four serious lefty bloggers. Litbrit, Gatordem, Vox Populi and myself. It isn't much of a community. I'm wondering where are the young progressives, journalists, and political science majors? Why aren't these people writing political blogs? Do they feel what they have to say will make no difference? It's a question that should be addressed.

According to David Howowitz, college campuses are full of lefties. The lack of lefty blogs written by teens and early-twentysomethings is prove that isn't the case. How many college students name the head of their school's College Democrats? The USF College Democrats website hasn't been updated in so long that the defunct Tampa Independent Media Center is still linked. I won't even go into why no College Democrats' site should have the neoliberal New Republic linked.

Kenneth brings up a valid point of Florida bloggers writing more about local and state issues. He cites a good reason why.

Lack of knowledge on Florida politics: One of the reasons I think so few of us post regularly on Florida politics is that we know so little about it. Some of this comes from the fact that our media doesn’t cover it in-depth enough for us to feel comfortable talking about Florida politics.

My (friendly) righty opponent Jim Johnson and I often go into wonk speak into each others comments. I often wonder if people have a clue as to what we are talking about. It is essential for a blogger to have an understanding of policy. There is nothing that infuriates me more than a blogger using truthiness over facts in a post. Glenn Reynolds blogging about Iraq having nuclear weapons is a perfect example.

I'm not sure how Florida having their own version of the Koufax awards will make a difference. Litbrit (of Shakespeare's Sister) and I (of the defunct Loaded Mouth) have been nomination for best group. Florida Politics have been nominated. It helps with lefty street credibility. It doesn't make you a superstar unless you win. My fear is it will turn into a vanity prize.

Finally, linking to other progressive blogs. My former Loaded Mouth blog boss Taz pointed out that conservative bloggers do a better job of linking to each other. This in turn boost their traffic. Plus, it's a nice thing to do. A blogger may start reading another lefty after getting traffic from that person.