Closed societies in Bluegrass blogging

As one might expect from well informed and highly opinionated Kentuckians such as ourselves, we read several sources of news and commentary from around the Bluegrass State every day. That includes the Herald-Leader and the Courier-Journal, selected stories in several other papers, and the major conservative and liberal blogs. We want to know what's going on and what people are saying and thinking about the issues of the day.

We have noticed a troubling trend on the left side of the Kentucky blogging aisle.

While the conservative and Republican blogs seem to have a lot of interaction, with Fletcher supporters posting on Northup-leaning blogs and vice versa, and with occasional liberal posters participating to spice things up, the Democrat factions have coalesced. You'll rarely see a conservative poster on Bluegrass Report these days, and the only posters seem to be the hardcore lefties who support Jonathan Miller (the preferred candidate of Mark Nickolas). The hatred shown to those who don't toe Nickolas' line is stunningly amazing. The number of dissenting views posted there has decreased tremendously since the governor's race began in earnest. The usual suspects there ridicule and make fun of conservative blogs and even other Democrat blogs, such as the upstart Rural Democrat that supports Steve Beshear's candidacy and doesn't have such a liberal edge to its opinions. Those who frequent that blog don't post very much on Bluegrass Report, either.

Liberals usually pride themselves on their open-mindedness, so we have to chuckle at the way this state's Democrat blogosphere has become so polarized. It's almost as if they want to have their own private parties where their own opinions can be continually reinforced and they want to hear nothing contradictory that might actually force them to change their minds or consider another alternative.

This is a perfect example of the philosophical differences between most Kentucky Democrats and their national counterparts. A small but vocal group of extreme leftist D's are trying to convince their party mates to abandon Kentucky values for those of, say, Massachusetts or San Francisco.

We'll give you a hint, Bluegrass Report lemmings. We don't see it happening anytime soon.

The Republican gubernatorial primary is going to be a bitter one (unnecessarily so, in our opinion, because the challengers to the incumbent should have been out reinforcing the support for him instead of waiting for him to be tripped by a Democrat so they could trample him as he tries to get back on his feet) but at the end of the day, we suspect the varous factions in the GOP will come together a lot better than will the Democrat camps.

In the meantime, we are thrilled that the Democrats, especially the uber-liberals, remain closed minded and ignorant. Just continue having your self-contgratulatory love fests and the rest of us will be glad to debate the issues with those who disagree with our points of view.