We've Grown Apart

In his latest blog post, James Lileks makes a reference to something I had not known: he is writing for National Review Online. I haven't been to that website for a long time, and I still don't plan on going back. Something about it makes me itch. I will continue to visit his personal site and read his Star-Tribune column, though, because I like his style and because he rarely mentions politics in those.

That revelation,and my reaction, did bring something about me to mind that I hadn't given much thought. I try to wander a wide spectrum of the web, but my blog's list of sites does have a slightly liberal lean to it. I only consider South Dakota War College, Andrew Sullivan and perhaps Megan McCardle conservative. I'm not really sure how that has come to be, since I've always had a hardheaded, unromantic view of life that would seem more in keeping with conservative traditions. I was raised a Missouri Synod Lutheran, and I went to an engineering college, where a roommate described me as very conservative. I'm even still registered as a Republican, although that's more a function of sloth and a general indifference to party politics that has kept me from changing something I did 30 years ago, when Ronald Reagan was just taking office and billion-dollar federal deficits were horrifying.

It may simply be a matter of taste. Internet exploration is a strictly hobby for me. I don't intentionally seek out subjects and sites with a certain ideology in mind; I simply seek entertainment and compelling thoughts. It just happens that the people I have found enjoyable tend to be on the left side of the the political spectrum, which is hardly surprising in a way, since the people who make a living in entertainment tend to frequent that side.

The more I think about it, though, the more I think it's a result of a parting of ways since I filed that party registration. The conservative movement has gotten more and more reactionary, at least to me. I recall Larry Pressler saying more or less the same thing two years ago when he said he voted for Obama - the Republican Party he once knew is gone. I can't say I've ever been a big supporter of any party or ideology, but it would seem that either my philosophical boat has drifted left, the political waters have flowed further right, or both. I'm inclined to think it's the last one.