Blogger ennui?

I understand the feeling. Blogging is a lot of work, and relatively little pay-back, either in monetary or psychological terms.

Often you know "you done good" by the volume of the abuse hurled in your direction.

Sometimes the posts you've carefully researched draw no comment whatever, while the ones you dash off thoughtlessly garner praise and generate multiple conversations. No way to figure it.

Mike Matthews at Down With Absolutes is apparently giving it up for Twitter, while Dave Burris is shutting down Delaware Politics at the end of the legislative session. I'll miss them both.

Dana Garrett has told me several times that he blogs now primarily out of a sense of obligation rather than a sense of joy, and that he has been on the verge of quitting multiple times.

Part of the problem comes when a blog relies primarily on a single author: if you hit a tough patch or lose interest for awhile, then people start checking your site less frequently, and things just sort of cascade down from there.

One of the things I've noticed at Delawareliberal with the expansion of bloggers under the same masthead is that far more posts these days are being generated by what I would call the second or third generation (pandora, cassandra, Delawaredem. Unstable Isotope) than by the old guard (dv, liberalgeek, and jason). It's difficult to maintain the passion for a long time.

I also think that for a lot of political bloggers it is difficult to keep going, win or lose, during non-election years. I note, in a processual sense and not as a criticism, that even at Delawareliberal the unifying theme of most posts tends to be anti-Republican or anti-centrist Democrat rather than specifically pro-anything. Don't get me wrong: there are things they are for, both in a policy and in a political sense, but cheerleading for two new Democratic administrations at the State and National level that are--suddenly, abruptly, and much to everyone's surprise!?--not keeping most of their campaign promises ... is tough.

Being a Libertarian without any real prospect of electing anybody to anything, I suppose, makes it easier to deal with that particular problem: I tend to see the unfortunate continuities between Bush and Obama rather than the chimerical, spin-driven change. [Which is not to say that health care reform won't be a change--massive deficit spending certainly isn't--but I also retain a healthy skepticism that by this fall President Obama will be doing anything more than declaring victory over nominal minor changes in the system. I could well be wrong: that's part of the fun.

But it is not good news when the Delaware blogosphere grows less diverse in terms of ideology and opinion. Within a month we will be down to about half a dozen political blogs that publish regularly to any readership larger than a few dozen people per day. Put it another way: Delawareliberal (quoth jason: Republicans hate America. It really is that simple.) will become an increasingly bloated fish in a dessicating pond.

Delaware Libertarian will remain in the mix for the foreseeable future, if only to point out--like I did this morning--that the people who want to run all our lives love to employ massive double standards in their own analysis.

Besides: writing is an acceptable avocation if you remember to do it in private and wash your hands afterward.