The End.

Only Connect . . . Live in Fragments No Longer.  – E.M. Forster

Warning: This is going to be one of those pretentious, inflated-with-false-self-importance analyses of the last three years.  Cross-posted to Indigo Journal.

Just shy of three years, several hundred thousand hits, over 1000 posts by me, over 3500 comments from you, I’ve reached the end of this little experiment.

I had some specific goals when I set out.  One of those goals was to see whether, in the midst of all the immaturity and personality disorders on display in the blog world, online political discussion in South Carolina could actually be done in a mature, smart way.  I’m a bit older than most bloggers, and have a busy life.  I have neither the time nor the temperament for blog wars.  I just wanted to see if this forum could attract thoughtful people to a smart discussion of the relevant issues.

Count that one as a success, thanks to people like Silence Dogood, RobW, Deacon Tim, Peddler, Rodney, Jon, Tammy, Blue South, Waldo, Eric, Anthony, Jennifer, Tim, and many others.

I have been very fortunate not to have the kind of commenters that dominate some of the other South Carolina blogs.  If I had ended up with the same four or five people screaming at each other, not listening, simply looking for an outlet to do some weirdly exhibitionistic, passive-aggressive thing, I would have packed it in a long time ago. I got lucky.

The second goal I had was to try to shine a light on the politicians in this State who do and say nutty and damaging things.  There are so few checks on power here.  My operating premise, admittedly a shaky one, has been that if the good people of this State were actually made aware of some of this stuff, democracy would work.

I’d count that shine-a-light goal as . . . well, overly ambitious, and perhaps flawed in its premise.  There’s still a State Senator who compares a presidential nominee to Osama bin laden – and is reelected.  And the head of the state Republican party who still says that the Democrats want to surrender to terrorists – and is positioned to head the National party.  And a Republican debate audience at the Koger that loudly and enthusiastically cheers the idea of torture.  And a couple of US Senators who support suspending habeas corpus. We still have lots of folks from both parties who think they’re doing God’s work by trying to inject religious dogma into everything from school science curricula to license plates.  And candidates who, even after constitutionally making it a non-issue, continue to go for the ol’ reliable, the gay button, to win votes by further marginalizing the most vulnerable.

We have a long way to go, indeed.

Three years later, we’re still at the bottom of the good-things lists and top of the bad-things lists.  In many ways, we’re still acting like adolescents in this State rather than fully functioning adults. Don’t try to tell me there’s no correlation.

And while in this recent election, the rest of the country was able to see how the ship had run aground and needed to chart a new course, we here in South Carolina continued to reward all the wrong things.  Did you really hear anybody argue convincingly that Henry Brown and Joe Wilson were smart, energetic, effective Congressmen?  The rest of the country saw the need for change.  Apparently, we South Carolinians value familiarity above all else.

I’m now very hopeful about the direction of this country.  That presidential election feels monumental. As for South Carolina and the rest of the old Confederacy, moving in a different and potentially isolating direction . . . who knows?

Those bloggers who tried to label me may be surprised to know that I’m actually conservative in a lot of my thinking.  But I’m also about being respectful to groups of people I may not completely understand yet.  And not going through life primarily motivated by fear.  And caring about facts. And in considering issues of public policy, using rationality more than emotions. And understanding the Constitution, including things like separation of powers and the religion and speech clauses of the First Amendment.  And, my personal pet issue, acting as good stewards of the natural world.

These things have really never seemed to me to be about liberal or conservative.  They’re just about being human.

What I do know very clearly is that I do not want to be associated with the Republican Party as it currently exists. Ronald Reagan, save me from your followers. (Hat tip: Jesus bumper sticker.) Lee Atwater lives, especially here in South Carolina.  The candidates and politicians still pull out that tired, old playbook without shame or penalty.  So much of political life seems to be about gamesmanship, division, and self-interest, when it should be about governing and solving some very big problems.

For the record: I do believe it is entirely possible to be a conservative Republican in South Carolina without being sanctimonious, judgmental, cynical, shallow-thinking, emotional, button-pushing, and generally unlikeable.  It’s possible, but apparently also pretty difficult.

And then there are the right-wing blogs, several operating as ethically-suspect fronts for undisclosed paying clients, others written by wacky, angry people looking for other wacky, angry people to affirm their wackiness and anger.  Just yesterday on Twitter there was a Tweet from SCHotline calling President-elect Obama “Curious George.” Yep, comparing our first African American president to a monkey. Seriously: What is wrong with these people?

The third goal I guess I had with my blogging was to change some minds.  Count that one as a failure.  I now don’t believe arguments in blogs ever change minds.  We come at political issues with a lifetime of unique experiences and prejudices. So did I really think some funny-named anonymous writer on the internet could change your mind? Maybe for a while. But I got over it.

New insights and a shift in focus are perhaps the most we can hope for. Sometimes I was able to see how I was being short-sighted or unfair in my arguments, thanks to some commenters.  But that’s mostly fine-tuning stuff.  I didn’t flip on any issue of significance, and I’m pretty sure you didn’t either.

So that brings me, finally, to the one thing I think blogs can do: Connect people. Like the people I met for lunch or a beer.  (You know who you are.)  And the emails or phone calls from people willing to reveal a bit more of themselves than they would in a blog comment.  Even the strictly-online connections among the 700-plus (and counting) commenters who were brought together by the apolitical question of how to live a full life, a question raised by the story of a guy named Chris McCandless.

So I’m going to leave the keyboard for a while to do other things. I’m headed into the woods with the dogs. I’m going to take the fishing boat down to Sparkleberry.  I’m going to read a few novels that have been sitting on my bedside table – well,  if my brain can still handle something longer than four paragraphs.  I’m going to paddle the kayak down Cedar Creek, keeping an eye and ear out for the Ivorybill.

All along, it’s been about figuring out what’s important.  Still is.  As for this blogging stuff, it’s somebody else’s turn.

Thanks.   Sincerely.

Carpe diem.