Michael J. Totten: New Blogging Gig

July 14, 2005

New Blogging Gig

I joined a brand-new politically centrist group blog that just launched yesterday called Donklephant. A donklephant, you see, is a hybrid animal: half Democratic donkey and half Republican elephant. It has big teeth, a huge ass, and is surprisingly reasonable.

I won’t be contributing daily (at least not at first) but I do have a debut essay right out the starting gate called The West Has Never Been One. I’m not cross-posting, so you’ll have to go over there and read it.

Donklephant is the newest title in Duncan Riley’s Weblog Empire. My fellow contributers include Marcus Cicero, Callimachus, Justin Gardner, J. Thomas Duffy, and Montag.

I don't want anyone to miss this excellent essay by Callimachus called "Josey Wales and Me." I have a feeling that a lot of people who aren't partisan hacks, but who still lean somewhat one way or the other, are going to read this and understand themselves a bit better than they did before they took a look at it.

Also see Marcus Cicero's first essay called Driving.

I was the one who asked the site editor, Justin Gardner, to bring Callimachus and Marcus Cicero on board. I'm glad I did, I'm glad Justin agreed that they're worth having, and I'm glad they both signed on. I think you'll see why when you read what they have to say. They are both among the very best the blogosphere has to offer, and it's an honor to work on a project with them. I’m looking forward to discovering the other new (to me) bloggers as well.

Posted by Michael J. Totten at July 14, 2005 10:21 AM

Comments

You'll still be posting here, right? Group blogs tend to stifle the individuality of the blogger, and you definitely have a very interesting voice.

Posted by: Steve Smith at July 14, 2005 11:34 AM

Donklephant, eh? Kewl.

Posted by: TallDave at July 14, 2005 11:39 AM

Steve,

I'm not going anywhere. I'll just post stuff over there every now and again and will always link to it from here.

Posted by: Michael J. Totten at July 14, 2005 12:31 PM

I have a feeling that a lot of people who aren't partisan hacks, but who still lean somewhat one way or the other, are going to read this and understand themselves a bit better than they did before they took a look at it.

Well, I'm neither partisan nor a partisan hack. On a number of topics I lean considerably more than somewhat and at 52 years of age I've had a good understanding of myself for roughly a quarter century.
But I found value in this Donklephant blog anyway.
Thanks for linking it.

Posted by: Stephen_M at July 14, 2005 01:08 PM

Congrats! Donkeyphant has excellent bloggers and a unique slogan.

About your essay: When we compare the American Left and Right to the more extreme European versions of Left and Right, most Americans start to look like centrists. I guess that's one of many reasons why our relationship with Europe is so difficult at times.

Posted by: mary at July 14, 2005 01:50 PM

Michael: I've been reading Callimachus' blog ("done with mirrors") for a while now. You guys comprise an all-star line-up in the sphere of reasonableness and centrism. I'm looking forward to the new loctation- in spite of its awful name.

Posted by: kreiz at July 14, 2005 02:36 PM

oops - Donklephant. Kreiz is right, the superior writing totally makes up for the name.

Posted by: mary at July 14, 2005 02:59 PM

Donklephant is a tiresome name.

It also gives the impression that instead of striving out in new directions you are simply merging bits from the two main parties, which again is tiresome. A balancing act.

I hope thats not the case Michael, because you are good writer with some interesting views, in my opinion.

Posted by: Benjamin at July 14, 2005 07:54 PM

sweet, a blog straight out of purple america.

Posted by: captain mike at July 14, 2005 08:39 PM

Terrible name; but can't think of much better. (Purple voices? Not Red Not Blue?)

Great posts so far ... with my (all too usual) long comment there.

Congrats; your suggestions ARE improving it.

Any "pro-life" centrists? Or is that impossible?

Posted by: Tom Grey - Liberty Dad at July 15, 2005 08:21 AM

“Any "pro-life" centrists? Or is that impossible?”

Bingo, you literally took the words out of my mouth. This attempt at a centrist political movement is all about advocating for abortion and gay sex. These are two of the most important secular sacraments. Aren’t there any other major issues? Nope, not in the least.

I am personally a hypocritical and logically inconsistent pro-lifer who shrugs his shoulders at people who prefer having sex with members of their own gender. What does that make me? Answer: a confused but loyal Republican.

Posted by: David Thomson at July 15, 2005 09:16 AM

Tom and David,

Pro-Life Centrists?

Well, I'm sure its possible... however are you identifying pro-life centrists as those who advocate support for alternatives to abortion... or, are you identifying pro-life centrists as anti-abortion and promoting the criminialization of abortion?

I think there seems a very key difference there. In identification A, one is contributing their viewpoint through freedom of speech, expressing their personal ideology. The second, however, attempts to impose one's personal ideology on all citizens.

I saw a recent poll which asked Americans if they would like to see Roe vs Wade overturned. Over 60% said NO. If this poll has any validity to it (if it reflects a useful view of mosbunall Americans), then the centrist position would not appear to support anti-abortion... However, I would fully expect a centrist to be free to espouse their personal opinion and promote alternatives to abortion.

I think it may depend on how Authoritarian the individual decides to act, and how authoritarian the policies are that they want to promote.

Posted by: Ratatosk, Squirrel of Discord at July 15, 2005 09:41 AM

I have no idea if there are any pro-lifers on the site, although I know Marcus Cicero is beginning to lean more that way than he once did now that he has an adopted daughter. (He's still pro-choice, though, if only very moderately.) But that's not why he's a contributer. He's a contributer because he's a centrist who writes and thinks very well.

No one asked me my views of abortion. No one asked anyone else their views of abortion. It just didn't factor in one way or another. I give almost no thought to the subject these days, but when I do I'm pro-choice even though it makes me shudder.

Posted by: Michael J. Totten at July 15, 2005 10:11 AM

I'm glad it makes you shudder!

It's the heart of the culture war, and the reason the Dems will continue to be intermittently in decline. But I expect them (you?) to continue exorcising any pro-lifers, like most church going Catholics, in their radical "every abortion should be a legal abortion under all circumstances" -- including the China one-child policy (which they deny).
10 years ago there was a huge Beijing Conference on women by the UN. (My wife went).

Tosk, the issue is this: when does a fetus gain the Human Right to Life? It's either at conception, at birth (some say AFTER), or somewhere else. I'm pretty sure more than 60% would be AGAINST partial birth abortion.

We've seen, ad nauseum, pictures of Abu Ghraib. Ready to see actual results of abortions? In BIG pictures (that are really gross)? The truth of abortion is really ugly. The Gay marriage issue was mostly a surrogate abortion debate. The Supreme Court nomination will be mostly about it -- any pro-life judges any Dem can recommend? Nope. There's a pro-abortion litmus test by the minority party.

It might be that the Dem pro-Terrorist anti-War stance has driven so many pro-democracy folk to support Bush that it insulates the Reps from his anti-abortion SC choices. I think so, actually -- and think the Dems will become Big Gov't pro-democracy after 2006, if not before. And focus more on abortion.

Posted by: Tom Grey - Liberty Dad at July 15, 2005 10:24 AM

Tom: But I expect them (you?) to continue exorcising any pro-lifers, like most church going Catholics, in their radical "every abortion should be a legal abortion under all circumstances" -- including the China one-child policy (which they deny).

Tom, that's just crazy talk. I've never heard a single person - ever - claim they think Americans should only be allowed to have one child.

What percentage of Americans do you really believe think we should be forced to have only one child? Any family with two children by definition cannot believe this, and there's just no way that everyone else does.

I don't "exorcise" pro-lifers. My favorite writer and journalist - Christopher Hitchens - is a pro-lifer and always has been. He was a pro-lifer during all those years when he wrote for The Nation, and everyone who followed his career knew it.

Posted by: Michael J. Totten at July 15, 2005 10:38 AM

Tom,

Unfortunately, the issue of 'when' a fetus becomes a life, seems to be metaphysical. Is a life a bunch of reproducing cells, or is it when a fetus can exist independant of its host, or is it at birth, or is it somewhere inbetween, when the fetus gets a brain, when it can register senses? When?

And therein lies the problem, no one seems able to catagorically state WHEN a fetus becomes a Human. Sombunall Christians think that all abortion is wrong, sombunall other Christians think that late-term abortions are wrong, sombunall Christians seem to focus only on what is/is not acceptable to themselves. Athiests seem to have a variety of opinions, Pagans have other sets of opinions, etc etc etc.

Metaphysics, in my mind, seem to rely on the beliefs and perceptions of the individual... thats something that I can't imagine any government handling with any real authority.

Posted by: Ratatosk, Squirrel of Discord at July 15, 2005 10:39 AM

Good luck with the new site anyway Michael. I will pop in occasionally, even though I dislike the name and strapline!

Posted by: Benjamin at July 15, 2005 06:21 PM

Sorry; of course no "one child policy" in the US. But US feminists strongly supported having the UN meeting in China, in recognition and support of their successful one-child policy.

Note how tosk twists my question into a metaphysical one, when it was clearly political:
when does a human fetus get the human right to live?

Rights have to be protected by gov't. What kind of criminalization for illegal abortionists is a different question.

Abortion is a bigger, and tougher, issue for centrists than Iraq ... which at some point will be successful (like post-war Germany) or not (Vietnam). Disagreements on metaphysical issues, and how these disagreements get translated into law, won't go away.

Posted by: Tom Grey - Liberty Dad at July 16, 2005 01:13 AM

"Bingo, you literally took the words out of my mouth. This attempt at a centrist political movement is all about advocating for abortion and gay sex."

Agreed. Whenever you go to a centrist political website, it's nothing but discussions about preserving Turkish bathouses and recommending elite male escort services to eachother. Occasionally we get around to discussing the EITC.

"These are two of the most important secular sacraments. Aren’t there any other major issues? Nope, not in the least."

False: But even excepting your argument,
considering that abortion and gay sex are two issues that Conservatives themselves seem to be perversely preoccupied with (yourself included), to the point of making histeronic pronouncements proclaiming the 'Centrist' political movement as a plot to promote abortion and gay sex, it reeks of no small amount of hypocrisy(and no small amount of something else).

"I am personally a hypocritical and logically inconsistent pro-lifer who shrugs his shoulders at people who prefer having sex with members of their own gender."

Considering the histeronic exclamations you made about centrist movements promoting the 'secular sacrament' (that statement sure reeks of indifference) of gay sex in response to a question that had nothing to do with homosexuality, in a thread that previously contained no discussion of gay/homosexual anything, you certainly don't present a very convincing case.

I am however convinced you are telling the truth when you describe yourself as a 'loyal republican', don't ask me why.

As for Pro-Life centrists? Considering that there are Pro-Life liberals, sometimes radical liberals (Democratsforlife) it should be a logical conclusion that there are pro-life centrists. It's my observation that even pro-choice centrists tend to be much more reluctant & troubled about abortion than liberals.

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