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December 14, 2005

Salon Has Officially Lost It Part 2

I have written before about the decline of Salon.com. It went from being a leftist magazine that would occasionally feature conservative writers and occasional good feature stories in the late nineties, to a full on madhouse of conspiracy theories and raving Bush hatred. I wrote about Salons belief that Bush had a secret microphone during a presidential debate here. Salons derangement, along with the fact that you either have to watch ads or pay to read it, switched me from being a daily reader to a weekly reader and finally to a only when other people link to its derangement reader.

This week I was a only when other people link to its derangement reader. One of Salons columnists is advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government and our constitution because he does not like the results of the last few elections. Carry Tennis writes:

At a certain point in the near future, if the current oligarchy cannot be removed via the ballot, direct political action may become an urgent and compelling mission. It may then be necessary for many people in many walks of life to put their bodies on the line. For the moment, however, although pressing and profound questions have arisen about whether the current government is even legitimate, i.e., properly elected, there still remains a chance to remove this government peacefully in the 2008 election. (Or am I living in a dream world?) I do think this regime's removal is the most urgent matter before the country today. And I do think that at a certain point the achievement of that goal might take precedence over our personal predilections for writing, teaching and the like. We might be called upon to go on general strike, for instance. We might be called upon to set up camp in the streets for weeks or months, to gather and remain in large public squares as the students in Tiananmen Square did, and dare government forces to remove us or to slaughter us in the streets.

Cary Tennis is not satisfied with a change in administration (even though our constitution requires that Bush serve a maximum of two terms and thus will no longer be president in four years), Tennis wants a change in regimes. A regime that has lasted since 1788 and has survived an invasion, a major civil war, two world wars, and a cold war and which has had dozens of peaceful transitions of administrations At first I was going to ask you to ignore the Tennis inane rant about how our current government is even legitimate, i.e., properly elected, as George W. Bush was duly elected by the electoral college as set forth in our constitution, Then I realized that was part of his point. He does not like the results the constitution gave him, so get rid of it, by force if necessary (see there still remains a chance to remove this government peacefully in the 2008 election.)

Captain's Qarters has a similar response to mine:

The level of hostility towards democratic choice by Tennis boggles the mind. In his piece, he openly endorses violence against the duly elected government as a rational option when elections don't go his way. Does Salon endorse that view? Do their advertisers, such as NY Times Select, the History Channel, and United Airlines?

Salon should be ashamed to have published this dreck, and owes an explanation and an apology to its readers.

Posted by Pete at December 14, 2005 09:30 AM

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Comments

Wow. I may have issues with the current administration, but this takes the cake.

Carey Tennis sounds a lot like my mother. She's all about conspiracy theories and radical activism.

Posted by: pamela at December 14, 2005 10:48 AM

On behalf of logical people that are often call liberal I separate myself from this person. I like the flexible "regime" that we have, although I think you are being a little mean to this guy. But that's what he gets.

Posted by: Jeff at December 15, 2005 05:32 PM

Jeff, if he wasn't a professional writer who knows what his words mean I might be a bit nicer to him. There are lots of liberals I respect (like you), even though I disagree with them on some issues. I think Tennis may qualify as a leftist, however, so I do not think you have to separate yourself from him.

But part of what makes a democracy work is accepting when your side loses and going on to try again next election. The republicans won't control the whitehouse for ever and when they lose I will still be happy with our system, even if I do not like the results of the system at the time.

There has never been an American president bad enough to require a revolt because there has never been one unwilling to give up power when his time was up. Even FDR would have been willing to give up power if he lost and he is the closest thing to president for life this country has ever had.

Also it is fun to pick on Salon since they went from reasonable liberals to deranged wackos so dramatically.

Posted by: Pete at December 15, 2005 05:54 PM