Andrew Sullivan Ten Years Later

So the roasting and toasting of Andrew Sullivan and the Daily Dish is well underway. I’ll add my two cents.

First of all, we here at The League and myself in particular owe Andrew a huge debt of gratitude. Speaking for myself, Andrew was instrumental in introducing me to a much wider and more interesting array of blogs and writers than I’d read before I stumbled on The Dish. He was also instrumental in introducing my work to a larger array of readers. Prior to Sullivan linking to my posts, I’m not sure any other high profile blogger had. Thanks in large part to the exposure Sullivan (and the whole Dish crew) gave to this blog and to my writing, I’ve had what I consider a pretty successful run at this whole blogging thing.

The Dish was among the first to add The League to its blogroll, and sent a huge swath of our readership our way. So in purely mathematical terms, Sullivan has been a huge asset to this blog’s (and this writer’s) success over the past two years. While many established bloggers have very little time for unimportant, unestablished bloggers, Sullivan doesn’t flinch at bringing new and often unheard voices into the mix. This is invaluable. It keeps the conversation alive. And as one of the very first bloggers out there, it is remarkable that he maintains such an open door to latecomers like myself.

But there’s much more to Sullivan’s blog than friendly traffic. Andrew is passionate, and even when he’s infuriatingly wrong about something, I always trust that his sincerity is intact. He’s introduced me to an extraordinary range of ideas and writers and, hell, just to the art of blogging, all of which has been invaluable to me as a writer and political thinker and human being. I can say quite honestly that no other blogger has had as much of an impact on my blogging as Andrew has. For all these reasons and more, I’m profoundly grateful.

Here’s to ten more years!