Endlessly reporting the horrifying facts of the day can get tiresome, and I have found that many of us liberal or progressive types have burned out on it to a certain extent since last year’s election. I post about political matters when I literally cannot stop myself, but I never intended for this to be a political weblog, and frankly the problems seem too big and too pervasive for my cries in the wilderness to do a whole lot of good. The fundamental source of my discontent is that it’s just too hard to stay well-informed on the issues of the day. I work hard to keep up with what’s going on, and I usually find that I only really understand a very small percentage of any ongoing controversy. Most people don’t even try very hard.

Anyway, Billmon posts about what it’s like to go through this crisis when you do maintain a political weblog. For me, it’s write more about the Web, and programming, and other stuff that interests me. For a site that is about politics and current events, there isn’t that sort of fallback.

What I find interesting is that Billmon seems to have turned toward art. I don’t think it’s a surprise that the best art usually happens at the worst times. Certainly at times like this I wish I could write a bitingly humorous novel, or play, or musical that captures what it’s like to live through these times when in many ways, hope seems to be lost (at least to me). I think it would do a better job of getting my point across than just complaining about what I read in the news all the time.