About Me

A husband, a father, a son, a brother, loved by many, deplored by many, and merely tolerated by a few.  Political junkie, chair of a political action committee, Sci-Fi and superhero fan, very interested in social media

Why I Am What I Am

I believe it’s common knowledge among those in the political sphere that the Republican party has been hijacked by religious extremists. What isn’t discussed as much is the Democratic party has a vocal fringe element vying for control of the party. My goal is to simply point this out and comment on it.

At one time I ran a successful liberal blog where I gave the right wing hell everyday. But I often found myself battling with other liberals over basic policy issues. That’s when I realized that I was a center-left liberal.

In a recent speech, President Bill Clinton said, “America has two great dominant strands of political thought: conservatism, which at its very best draws lines that should not be crossed; and progressivism, which at its very best breaks down barriers that are no longer needed or should never have been erected in the first place.”

I’d like to see that remain true in defiance of the fringes in our political system.

I believe that fringe elements in both parties will be the downfall of our society regardless of which side wins unless moderates on both sides of the aisle turn back the tide of extremism. Just as I hope traditional Republicans reclaim the word “conservative” from the Christian Taliban in our country, I will do my best not to let the New Left “progressive” movement hijack the Democratic party.

History

Over the last 7 years, this blog has evolved, been renamed, and moved several times. I’ll try to give an accurate time line…

2002 - 2003: It started off on blogger.com as “Rightwing Slayer.” Yeah, I know — oozing with liberal machismo. If you look way back in the archives of this blog you are on now, you’ll find some “angry progressive” posts. I was pissed of at George W. Bush and unemployed and so I had plenty of time to perfect my “keyboard activist” image. I even got two death threats for some things I wrote (lol!) One day, though, I just got tired of the schtick (and I got a job!)

2004: A brief move to the North Fulton Democrats website where I calmed my rhetoric a little bit and renamed the blog “Donkey Droppings.” Their content management system at the time really wasn’t conducive to blogging, though, and no posts from the era survives on Donkey Digest now.

Additionally, Democratic Underground enabled a “Journal” functionality which allows posters to put their discussion posts in a journal format. Calling it “Canis Lupis Politicus,” I used that for a while. However, like the North Fulton Democrats platform, it lacked real blogging functionality. I still use it sparingly when I post at Democratic Underground.

2005: Back to blogger and renamed “The Moderate Donkey.” It was around this time I had a “centrist awakening,” realizing all the partisan rage I was exhibiting was doing absolutely nothing to change things in America politically (not that one little blog could, anyway.) I began to view the far left and the far right as two sides of the same coin and to this day it shows in my writing. I believe political fundamentalism is dangerous. Conservative Fundamentalism is well known. The Left kind is just as bad. A lot of posts from there can be found in the archives of Donkey Digest.

2006: I began using a Wordpress and the name Donkey Digest. This blog had it’s largest following then (about 1200 readers daily ranging, including some well know political columnists and Democratic strategists) and would often get angry profanity laced comments from both conservatives and liberals. My disdain for Republican policies is well known but I was (and am) equally as hard on progressives - who I share many of the same ideals with but part company with on political tactics.

2006 was the golden era of my blogging “career.” The midterm elections were in full swing, and it was obvious fairly early the Democrats would sweep the GOP out of power that year.

2007: In late 2007 I decided to move Donkey Digest to another hosting company, so I backed up my database in preparation. But a freak mishap (that was my last hosting company’s term, not mine) caused my database to become corrupted. Unfortunately, I deleted my blog from their servers before I realized my backup was bad. Oops! Bye bye Donkey Digest! Everything was gone… or was it? Well, I still had the archives of prior incarnations of my blog either backed up or still live on the internet. And like many bloggers, I often write my posts in MS Word or Note Pad then paste them into the post field so I had a ton of those in a folder on my computer. So I knew I could resurrect Donkey Digest in some form whenever I wanted to. So I decided to take a break.

April, 2009: I redesigned and began posting to Donkey Digest again. As of this writing, I have made no official announcement so not a lot of people are back on board.