In light of our latest horrifying glance at the Huffington Post comment boards as well as some of the comments that typically appear on this site, I’ve reached some conclusions about comment boards and the effect they’re having on our politics at large.

First, let’s start with a couple of facts: The blogosphere is important. It’s more important on the left than it is on the right, for sure, but politicians of all stripes have reached a consensus that the goodwill of the blogopshere is something to be courted.

This isn’t because of bloggers. Rather, it’s because of our readers. Blog readers, both left and right, are exceptionally high–end consumers of news. Among blog readers, there is a disproportionate amount of what Malcolm Gladwell calls “mavens” in his book “Tipping Point.” To generalize, blog readers are well informed big-mouths. They wield influence beyond their numbers.

So what happens in the comments section of blogs, including this one, has to be on some levels meaningful. The commenters represent the community, and it’s the community that politicians want to reach.

WHY ARE SO MANY BLOG COMMENTS SO INCREDIBLY VILE? I think it’s because commenting on blogs allows a freedom that virtually no other form of communication offers. It’s a way of sending a primal scream out to the universe that goes completely unanswered.

One thing’s for sure – people who make vile comment on blogs feel uniquely uninhibited. Take those HuffPo comments we discussed yesterday regarding Tony Snow. I frankly doubt that the commenters who wished Snow a speedy death would feel comfortable uttering the same sentiment in literally any other forum. They wouldn’t dare make such a disgusting remark at their dinner table surrounded by their wife and children.

There’s a parallel track to these comments, and it’s the hate-mail that bloggers and other political writers receive. I don’t mean to brag, but I can count the truly vile messages that I’ve received in all the time I’ve been doing this on only one hand. Other bloggers claim to get many more such missives, and I take them at the word.

Why do I get so much less hate-mail? Surely it can’t all be because I’m so much more lovable than all other bloggers. Although, let’s be frank – that obviously has something to do with it. Just kidding. I think the explanation is because it’s pretty well known that not only do I read all my email, I respond to the vast majority of messages I receive. In other words, sending me an angry email isn’t a shout into the wilderness that will go unanswered. It will initiate a dialogue with another human being, a human being who may well answer the most obscene and offensive missives publicly.

This is different for other bloggers. If you send a message to Glenn or Andrew, you’ll generally have no way of knowing that it’s been read. Given the prodigious amounts of email that well-read bloggers receive, it’s an understandable (albeit mistaken) surmise that sending them an email is a shout into the wilderness akin to making an anonymous crack on a comment board.

WHAT KIND OF PERSON MAKES COMMENTS ANONYMOUSLY that he wouldn’t dare directly utter to another human being? A coward. And that’s what makes so many comment boards so utterly distasteful. They’re full of people indulging their darkest fantasies and most horrific thoughts in a public setting. Thankfully, the constraints of polite society make these people behave under normal circumstances. Unfortunately, there are often no such constraints on blog comment boards. Just once, I’d love to see one of these people leave their full names behind their disgusting comments so their friends, acquaintances, neighbors and assorted other relations could learn their true nature.

So what to do? Many of the comments on our own blog are edifying and interesting. Other comments are ones that quite frankly I detest seeing below a post that I authored. For instance, some people decided that my post Thursday on the Edwardses provided an appropriate forum in which they could express their distaste for John and Elizabeth Edwards.  Obviously, I felt differently.

Also needlessly cluttering up the boards are the commenters who feel it necessary to vomit out the exact same insults at me and Hugh in thread after thread. Honestly guys, can’t you think of another putdown? Come on – give it some intellectual elbow grease. And if you can’t think of any fresh insults, stop littering the comment boards with your by now exhausted sentiments. Instead, might I suggest you send me an email. I’ll respond – count on it.

In spite of it all, our comment boards have improved dramatically in the past month. One particular commenter with whom I have very little common ground has responded to my pleas and become a constructive contrarian voice. He knows who he is, and I’ve thanked him privately and am now glad to do so publicly. Additionally, the great people at Townhall have done Yeoman’s work “weeding” our comment boards and have immeasurably improved them.

But as the Huffington Post proves on a recurring basis, comment boards in general have a way to go. As long as they remain redoubts of anonymous unaccountability populated by people who harbor some truly dreadful demons, they will stay the lair of cowards.

All of this would be harmless enough were it not for the fact that politicians have decided it’s necessary that they do whatever’s necessary to reach out to such people.

Compliments? Complaints? Contact me at Soxblog@aol.com.