According to Technorati, there are tens of millions of blogs currently being published around the world. We’re told that a new one literally launches every minute. These online journals cover every imaginable topic — and some we’d rather not imagine. So why create PoliticalMavens.com and why do so now?
Though only a few years old, the blogosphere has already accomplished some amazing feats. “Citizen journalists” were instrumental in sending into early retirement a seasoned network news anchor and humiliating news organizations. They’ve rallied and impassioned grassroots America.
They’ve also given a voice to those who otherwise wouldn’t have them.
And that’s not necessarily a good thing.
For all the hype — and let’s not delude ourselves, there’s A LOT of hype — too many blogs are contributing to the coarsening of American discourse. With stiff competition, and most averaging only a few hundred readers — at best — daily, for bloggers on both sides of the political aisle, being shrill and negative seems to have translated into influence and, one suspects, receiving the attention they so crave.
It needn’t be this way.
As a former rabbinical student who spent years studying the Talmud, I know a thing or two about debate. Pursuing Truth and truth is not about zingers or implied accusations. It’s about ideas — right as well as wrong. It’s about informed analysis rather than speculation. And, most importantly, it’s about being passionate.
The goal of PoliticalMavens.com is to serve as a forum of enlightenment in an effort to clarify one’s thinking. Those who have been invited to become PM “fellows” are aboard because of their accomplishments. They deserve to be heard for one reason: Their hard earned experience. Among our contributors are a former governor and a mayor of a major metropolitan city; former ambassadors and a presidential deputy chief of staff, studio heads, Pulitzer and Emmy winners, cultural icons and New York Times best selling authors. You get the idea.
With two prominent political parties in America, there’s a prevailing belief that being bi-partisan is synonymous with being disloyal and weak. Opinion makers continue to preach the need to choose sides — and stick with your choice no matter what. Such is not the thinking man’s way.
