1 Month Old!

I was really surprised to notice that I have been blogging at Progressive Dispatches for 1 month now, mainly because it feels like I just posted And we're back! So, why post about a such a minor milestone?

Well, I had previously blogged for 3 months at Canadian Liberal @ Penn in the summer of 2005. True, I am only 1/3 of the way to my previous record in terms of longevity, in terms of number of posts, this is my 21st post so far, which is getting close to my previous record of 27. Unfortunately, I am not anywhere close to the amount of traffic I used to get, which is disappointing because the traffic provided me with active comments and conversation with others that made blogging more fun and meaningful. But last week's discovery of a burgeoning blogosphere at Penn has been pretty cool.

This time around, I found blogging to be both easier and harder. It has been easy because of the large range of topics that I want to blog about but tough because of the high speed and breadth of the constant flow of new information. The sheer size of the American political system allows for a sizable political chattering class of pundits, strategists, lobbyists, and has seen the emergence (pdf) of a vibrant progressive blogosphere that is fascinating to watch flex its muscle within the Democratic party. The progressive resurgence nationwide and the real notion that I could be part of this avant-garde progressive movement has been exciting. Most of all, it it the desire to bring this progressive infrastructure and success back to Canada that is most interesting me about US domestic politics right now.

In comparison, I was able to blog about Canadian politics at a much slower pace and there were less blogs and not much of an online opinion infrastructure. Granted, I was blogging within a nascent Canadian blogosphere dominated by well organized conservatives. Progressive Bloggers had just been founded and was quickly followed by Liblogs, both of which I joined and saw a steady traffic of around 50 unique visitors per day.

We find the the same thing at the early stages of the development of the US blogosphere. It started with conservatives having a powerful top-down infrastructure which has since stagnated. Meanwhile there has been an incredible growth of the progressive blogosphere with some asking whether it has reached its apex. This example shows how the Canadian right is able to effectively emulate their American counterparts and implement similar policies, strategies and ideas on a slight time delay.

In Canada, Conservatives have long mastered the art of borrowing from the US conservative movement and I don't see why Liberals shouldn't do the same thing on the Progressive side. Across the pond, British bloggers are similarly learning from recent progressive successes in America. From an initial glance, the Canadian landscape seems to have grown in size but I don't see Canadian blogs having the same sort of impact on politics yet.

(cross-posted at Canadian Liberal @ Penn)

~BT