A number of interesting observations have percolated throughout the Interweb in the aftermath of the 2008 election - arguments about the “youth vote”, the “center-right versus center-left,” pushing aside social conservative issues, etc. But one of the most thought-provoking topics receiving attention is the issue of the presence (or lack thereof) of the Right in the online “Web 2.0″ universe. As a technology geek by trade, this topic is near and dear to my heart.

Much has been made of the aforementioned “youth vote” in the post-election analysis, and within that discussion are implications that the youth were energized by the online presence of the Obama campaign. Tools such as YouTube, Twitter, Friendfeed, numerous blog sites, SMS, etc. were used to not only educate, but to “activate.” A huge portion of Obama’s fundraising was done via the web - small donations that eventually added up to huge numbers (please, let’s not get into the issue of overseas donations, etc. - that’s really not the point). These tools were used to empower activism, through GOTV-type projects, state-by-state campaign events, as well as fundraising. I am not 100% convinced that there is an obvious correlation between the high percentage of the 18-29 crowd that voted for BHO and his online presence…since youth are already steeped in online culture, and youth seem to lean left to start with, it is difficult to assign a direct cause/effect relationship proving that Obama’s leverage of technology led to his success with that demographic. But it certainly didn’t hurt.

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Happy Thanksgiving from the bs family! To commemorate Thanksgiving, I give you the greatest TV scene ever produced.

As they say in the Clint Eastwood movie, Hang ‘em. Hang ‘em high.

I continued to be stunned by the obsession with the rights of the Somali pirates - these “enemies of the human race” (hostis humani generis). They are entitled to a a fair trial, followed by a first class hanging (bonus points if you recognize that movie line).

Using analogies is always risky, as they often fall apart under scrutiny. But in this case, I’ll take the risk. And it’s Sunday, so the Biblical reference is apropos.

In the Old Testament, Moses wrote of the trials of the Israelites as they wandered the desert during their forty years of exile. During this period, the LORD provided the Israelites with manna (”manna from heaven”) to eat. Every night manna appeared on the ground, and the Israelites would gather it and cook it for their food…that was pretty much all they had:

The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a handmill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into cakes. And it tasted like something made with olive oil. When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down.(Num 11:7-8)

Eventually the Israelites tired of the manna and complained to Moses about having to eat manna every day (the Israelites complained about a lot of things during those years) and looked back to the “good ol’ days” in Egypt where they didn’t have to eat manna. Rather than manna, the Israelites wanted meat. Moses took their complaints to the LORD, and He responded.

“Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month - until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it - because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” ‘ ” (Num 11:18-20)

So what does this have to do with anything RedState-ish?

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I wrote last week on the problem of the Somali pirates. Michael B. Oren, via the WSJ, has done an excellent job of documenting the history of the pirate problem in the Jeffersonian period and how we dealt with it then…and how that applies to today’s situation.

Read it here.

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I’ve been a broken record on this one: there was very little attention paid to socon issues, especially religious ones, during the 2008 election season. And Pew backs me up (well, not personally, but you get the idea) in this great article. They say it best here:

The “culture war” issues that have been prominent in past elections, such as abortion and gay marriage, received minimal attention in 2008. The coverage they did receive tended to come in the form of reaction to statements by the candidates and quickly receded without generating any sustained narrative. When Palin was introduced to the nation as McCain’s running mate, her parenting choices raised the issue of abortion, but only momentarily. In one of the more episodic narratives – evangelical megachurch pastor Rick Warren’s presidential forum held at his church – the candidates’ answers on a question about abortion gained attention in the press the week of the event.

Attention Kathleen Parker: are you listening?

I can endure a lot. And with Kathleen Parker, I have. The Left’s pet quasi-Republican is at it again. Her criticisms of Sarah Palin during the campaign were bad enough. But now she joins the chorus of those aching to throw social conservatives under the bus. Oh, but it’s not just socons - it’s Christian socons in particular.

Her latest screed is particularly offensive. It is mocking, rude, and insulting:

As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.

Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D.

I’m bathing in holy water as I type.

To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn’t soon cometh.

News flash, Kathleen: social conservative causes that are important to Christans were hardly in the forefront during this election.

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This is different.

Paranoid much?

In the movies, pirates are a lot more fun. Now, this is serious. In the last 24 hours in the waters off Somalia, two more merchant vessels were captured by Somali “pirates.” These tinhorn twerps in their “pirate ships” (which come closer to resembling recycled tinfoil than actual boats) have somehow been able to overpower numerous large cargo ships, one of which is a oil supertanker carrying over $100M in cargo. A second ship was also captured today - an Iranian freighter carrying a cargo of 30,000 tons of grain. Oh, and don’t forget - a ship carrying Russian tanks is still in the possession of another band of Somali pirates.

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It appears that Missouri will remain a Red State in the 2008 election. Not all of the provisional ballots have been counted yet, but McCain remains ahead by approximately 5000 votes and it would take a big turnaround for MO to go to Obama. This is a rather big deal, as MO has been a bellweather state for decades, only missing the winner twice since 1904 (1956 - Stevenson over Ike, and 2008)…the best “bellweather percentage” in the US. MO has moved ever so slightly left from the 2004 election - Kerry won only three counties in MO in 2004…in 2008, Obama won nine, but in both cases, the Dems took the major metro areas of St. Louis and Kansas City, and Boone County, the left-leaning home of the University of Missouri.

In Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District, Rep. Todd Akin easily won re-election over Bill Haas, whose only prior political experience was as a member of the St. Louis School Board. Akin won with a 62.3/35.4% margin over Haas, wtih the Libertarian candidate picking up the rest, despite the fact that much of St. Louis County strongly favored Obama in the POTUS race. However, most of Akin’s district falls in the more wealthy and more Republican precincts on the west side of the county. His district also extends into St. Charles County and farther north into Lincoln County. Both St. Charles and Lincoln are traditional GOP strongholds, but even they trended farther left in this election. While Obama’s huge rally in October was widely covered as drawing nearly 100K of his acolytes fans, it was not widely reported that a rally for John McCain and Sarah Palin drew over 20K in a small minor-league ballpark in O’Fallon, MO, shortly before the Republican Convention…another sign of the strength of the GOP in my neck of the woods.

Akin was elected in a close race for former Rep. Jim Talent’s House seat in 2000. However, in the subsequent elections, he has seen relatively little competition. And we hope it remains that way.

Akin is one of the House’s most reliable conservative votes. The American Conservative Union has awarded Akin a 97.4% lifetime rating, and 100% in 2007. He is a strong social conservative who votes consistently pro-life. He has a Master’s of Divinity degree from the Presbyterian Church in America’s Covenant Seminary in St. Louis, and he is a member of the PCA…which is fairly indicative of his social conservative credentials. He is what I consider a solid 3-legged stool Republican - strong in all three key facets of conservatism (social, fiscal, and defense).

Just this afternoon, I heard Rep. Akin on KMOX radio, describing his opposition to the GM bailout proposal (listen to the interview here). Akin believes that Chapter 11 is the only way to remedy the structural issues with the GM corporation (expenses, governmental regulations, labor problems, etc.). Contrast Akin’s position with that of US Senator Christopher “Kit” Bond (R), who supports the bailout package. Note: This is not a slam on Sen. Bond - while I don’t particularly agree with him on this one, his conservative record with the ACU is over 80%, which isn’t perfect, but it’s not bad - much better than the Leftist Senator from MO, Claire McCaskill (8% rating from the ACU).

I have been fortunate enough to have good, solid GOP representation in MO during the time we’ve lived here…until the 2006 election, when McCaskill won James Talent’s Senate seat (Talent had served out the remainder of the term of the late Mel Carnahan). It has been quite nice to not have to worry about the vote of my House rep! Unfortunately, the MO governor seat was won by Democrat Jay Nixon, the current Missouri Attorney General - a position given up by current MO Governor Matt Blunt. He will be another one sorely missed by conservatives in Missouri. (One bit of good news from this year - Kenny Hulshof was running against Jay Nixon for the governorship, and his seat was up for grabs. Blaine Luetkemeyer held Hulshof’s seat in District 9 for the GOP, despite the fact that the lefty stronghold of Columbia is in the district. This was a key one for the MO delegation and for the House Republicans.)

Rep Todd Akin’s web site

now that David Frum is leaving National Review.

Who will be our new target?

I’ll take this opportunity to bump my own RedHot off the front page. But in staying with the same spirit of that earlier article - this one again addresses the issue of the supposed need of the GOP to move to the middle. But why? IS there a middle? James Gimpel seems to think not. He doesn’t mince any words:

The research suggests that those who at various times occupy this center, often described as moderates or independents, are not very knowledgeable about or interested in politics. They do not follow campaign coverage closely, are inconsistent in their policy views, and are often not able to identify what positions are liberal or conservative.

What characterizes the centrist voter is not some peculiar set of policy positions, but rather ignorance of policy issues in general, coupled with vague impressions of the “goodness” or “badness” of the times. So-called centrist or moderate voters can’t even be counted on to vote.

His conclusion backs my points I’ve made in prior posts and diaries: …But the path to victory is to find a candidate who will pull the center in their direction, not to modify policy stances in hopes of making inattentive and ambivalent voters pay heed.

Schmack!

This is why I continue to love to read Jonah Goldberg.

There has been much discussion in the media and here on Redstate as to the future direction of the GOP. My observation is that most of our commenters and diarists would prefer the GOP to move right of where we’ve been with John McCain…with a few notable exceptions. Mr. Goldberg presents a very concise and cogent explanation about why a move to the right makes sense, and more importantly, why it is almost an impossibility for the party to be fiscally conservative and to move farther left socially.

I love this:

Economically conservative social liberals are the “jackalopes of American politics,” in the words of National Review’s Kate O’Beirne. The press keeps telling us they exist out there in huge numbers, but when you go looking for them, they refuse to emerge from the bushes.

In fairness, many people do describe themselves this way. Most of the time we simply call them “Democrats.” Those who call themselves Republicans should more properly be called “confused.”

Economically conservative social liberals = “jackalopes.” Excellent.

It appears Deroy Murdock got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.

You don’t hear this kind of thing too much from the ranks of the Right (well, maybe once or twice here on RS):

Nevertheless, Bush is the GOP’s Jimmy Carter, a weak bumbler who embarrassed his constituents, betrayed his philosophical movement, sank his party, and eventually surrendered the White House to the opposition, this time led by the Senate’s Number One liberal, still in his first term. Bush should retire quietly to Texas, where he can drive his truck, chop wood, and avoid the limelight for the balance of his natural existence.
 

Bush could use someone to sweep the leaves at his ranch. I nominate Karl Rove. Why on Earth is he always on TV spewing advice? As “the architect” of the oxymoronic Big Government Conservatism, he counseled Bush to solidify power by spending like a Democrat, slapping tariffs on steel, and locking away his veto pen for six years. Under Rove, the administration’s communications efforts made the Tower of Babel sound like a news channel. This would be bad enough if the GOP were unprincipled but in control. Oops! The GOP lost Congress in 2006 and the White House in 2008. Thanks, Karl.

That’s gonna leave a mark.

On The Day After, David Frum wrote an election post-mortem that told the GOP that we must move left. His words:

College-educated Americans have come to believe that their money is safe with Democrats – but that their values are under threat from Republicans. And there are more and more of these college-educated Americans all the time.

So the question for the GOP is: Will it pursue them? To do so will involve painful change, on issues ranging from the environment to abortion. And it will involve potentially even more painful changes of style and tone: toward a future that is less overtly religious, less negligent with policy, and less polarizing on social issues.

I’ve read a couple of Frum’s works, and he is consistent in imploring the GOP to move more to the middle. This seems to be a theme, and it’s creeping into the writings of our diarists and commenters. And frankly, I’m a little annoyed by it.

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I’m getting ready to go to church, where I will be standing in front of the congregation to pray for our Prez-to-be. I offer this article from Ligon Duncan on how Christians are to pray for Mr. Obama.

From 1 Timothy 2:1-2 - I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

I understand that not everyone on RS is a Christian, but for those who are, please keep in mind what our duty is as such. I don’t believe God says we have to agree with everything Obama says or does, nor should we back down from opposing what is wrong. As the days, weeks, etc. go along, I’ll simply be praying that he and his buddies don’t destroy the country.

In the aftermath of the election, many Obama supporters have lost their reason to live. They’ve now become … the undead.

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

Hide your children. Lock your doors.

In 1980, I was a college freshman at the University of Missouri. I was 18 and I was a mush-brained idealist who had never voted before. My ultra-liberal grandfather, an English professor, had convinced me that John Anderson was the best hope for the USA. My grandfather was a man I deeply respected, so I took his Anderson button, wore it, and promoted him as the candidate of choice. Of course the man didn’t have a prayer of winning, and the results of the election showed it. But we were terrified of Reagan starting a war, many of us had just registered for the draft, and there were still memories of Vietnam and Watergate.

Now I was probably an anomaly at the time, as in the early 80s through the early 90s, the GOP actually controlled the “youth vote”. That’s a bit hard to fathom, considering what occurred this week. Today, Patrick Ruffini describes the “Straight Ticket Youth Vote” and how it was hugely responsible for Obama’s win. Ruffini points out the following:

• The percentage of youth voters hardly budged from previous POTUS elections - 18% this year, versus 17% in years past.

• There was a coattail effect, as that voting block voted in almost the same percentages for down-ticket House seats as they did for Obama (low/mid 60s)

• The big kahuna - a 25% swing in the youth vote towards the Dem candidate from prior elections. As Ruffini points out, this comes out to approximately 4.5% of Obama’s vote total - 3/4 of his winning margin!

• Even if one discounts the African-American portion of the youth vote, the percentages are still substantial.

Economist Greg Mankiw also looked at the effects of youth on the Obama win. Based on his experiences at Harvard, Mankiw concludes that the reason for the movement of the young is not economic - it is based on foreign policy and social issues, such as abortion. They didn’t like Sarah Palin because of her social conservatism. Ross Douhat warns Mankiw to not use his Harvard sample set as indicative of youth as a whole, and I agree - to a point. Based on my limited view of the youth world, seen through the lens of my 18-year-old son and his Facebook friends, the attitude that Mankiw states is pretty widespread. However, Douhat points us to a 2007 Pew Survey on Generation Next that documents some interesting points, such as the youth’s support for Social Security privatization and opposition to abortion that is in line with the U.S. population as a whole.

So, what to make of this? Mankiw believes the GOP should move left on social issues to try to recapture this block:

So what does the Republican Party need to do to get the youth vote back? If these Harvard students are typical (and perhaps they are not, as Harvard students are hardly a random sample), the party needs to scale back its social conservatism. Put simply, it needs to become a party for moderate and mainstream libertarians. The actual Libertarian Party is far too extreme in its views to attract these students. And it is too much of a strange fringe group. These students are, after all, part of the establishment. But a reformed Republican Party could, I think, win them back.

Does the GOP need to focus more closely on the youth vote? If so, what do we do? Here are some semi-related thoughts:

• Many of those in their college years are living sheltered lives - they are still being supported by Mom & Dad, they aren’t earning their own living, and the realities of the real world are lost on them until they are forced to go forth into the outside world. The number of “boomerang kids” has increased substantially, prolonging a fantasy world devoid of the realities of self-support, taxes, raising a family, etc.

• Years of liberal indoctrination in the public schools of the US and in colleges and universities are finally paying off for the Left. This is something we will have great difficulty combating.

• The GOP is hardly a bastion of new technology exploitation. Sites like Redstate.com are doing their best to improve this situation, but we still have much room for improvement. The Obama campaign seemed to do much better with this. For example, the ratio of pro-Obama messages to pro-McCain messages on Twitter was overwhelming. You’d think conservatives never set foot in the place. The same goes for Facebook - while a number of the Redstate regulars are out there, there is quiet a conservative wilderness.

• According to the Pew survey, the youth are quite liberal on most social issues and on national security (e.g. Iraq, methods of dealing with terrorism), but mainstream on the economy and how to handle it.

All this leads me to this question:

• Can the GOP be a party for all people? Or is youth a demographic to which our message simply will not resonate?

Unlike Mankiw, I am quite opposed to the GOP turning our backs on social conservatism. What’s right is right, and we should not compromise that for political expediency. During this election season, the social messages were hardly in the forefront anyway. The problem then becomes one of changing perception and of marketing, which is an item that many have pointed out both before and after the election. We must make a connection between conservative philosophy and the concerns of youth. Despite David Frum’s somewhat off-the-wall recommendations for the GOP detailed in Feddie’s diary today, back in April he actually had some coherent recommendations for the GOP with respect to the youth…and his recommendations largely revolve around how the GOP sells itself to youth.

I doubt we’ll see a return any time soon to a point where the 18-29 segment supports Republican candidates in a manner similar to the 1994 era, but with some effort we may be able to move that percentage captured by Obama back down to a reasonable level. As close as the last few elections have been, this past Tuesday notwithstanding, that may be a substantial accomplishment.

In their usual thorough manner, Pew Research, which was recognized today as the most accurate pollster for yesterday’s festivities, has done a nice job of breaking down the exit polling numbers for the POTUS race.

The seven-point swing from 2004 in party ID stands out rather starkly.

What makes a good diary?

I’m hardly John Steinbeck when it comes to writing here on Redstate, but I do a bit of it in my job. A RS diary doesn’t really bear much resemblance to geeky I/T books and papers, but the thought process is somewhat similar. In addition, there are some “dos and don’ts” for RS blogs diaries in particular. Let’s visit some of these items, shall we?

Style items

• Think before you write - I always tell my friends that I do my best thinking in the shower. Many times I will come up with an outline of what I’d like to write while in shower-thought-mode. The trick, of course, is remembering what you’ve thought of between the time you think of it and when you sit down at the computer. A brain-dump at the PC is not normally going to provide a high-quality product.

• Outline - (Just like I’m doing here) It makes it much easier for a reader to absorb what you’re saying if it’s served in small chunks. Furthermore, an outline provides a logical sequence of items that tie back to a larger theme. You may not use an explicit “bullet point” outline, but each paragraph should hit key points one at a time. Remember when Miss Landers taught you 8th grade English? I’m sure an outline to your term paper was a requirement. It works here, too.

• Use good grammar and spelling - People will judge you by your writing, and if the mechanical stuff is wrong, it is distracting, and your message will be lost. I see so many RS diaries that are just sloppy, and that’s a shame, because many have worthwhile content. Browsers now have built-in spell-check (e.g. Firefox). Get off of Internet Explorer and get a real browser. (Better yet, buy a Mac…)

• Use an intro and conclusion paragraph - In public speaking, they tell you to “tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them”. Make the sale at the end.

• Use citations - Your opinion is nice, but if you’re trying to convince the readership about something, it usually isn’t worth much unless you’re a recognized authority on a topic. We DO have diarists here that fall into that category, but not many. PLEASE use links to other web articles… and use the “link” button in the editor to do it, so the links are clickable (probably my biggest RS 3 pet peeve). A well-cited article is not only more convincing, it’s more useful to the readers as a reference for future use.

RS specific hints:

• Really short diaries are unacceptable - Don’t just post two sentences and a link. If it’s that brief, post it on an open thread (you can usually find one).

• Don’t just post rehashes of other articles. There’s a reason you want to post it. Tell the readership what YOU THINK, not just what the article author thinks.

• Be original - Check the diaries list to see if anyone else has posted on the topic in the last 24 hours. It’s annoying to see six different diaries on the same article/YouTube video. If you have something really profound and substantial to say that is longer than a normal thread comment, post a new diary. Otherwise, post a comment to an existing thread. Originality is another one of my pet peeves. I try to only recommend diaries that have significant original content and/or very well-thought theses.

• Don’t be shrill - I know that in times like this, we’re all really angry, upset, and prone to vent. My grandfather was an English professor, and he could absolutely dismantle someone with words - not curse words, but well-placed words that ripped them with logic and wit rather than insults and 4-letter words.

Technical hints:

• USE LINKS - I said it above when discussing citations, but I’ll say it again…use the buttons on the editor to include real, clickable links.

• Use HTML, if you dare - In my signature line, I have a link to a diary I wrote a while back with FAQs about Redstate. In that FAQ doc is a link to some diaries that Neil Stevens wrote on using HTML. Now HTML isn’t as needed as it was in the old RS 2.0, as we now have the editor that permits some of the “tricks” to be done with the buttons. But HTML still works, to some degree.

• Embed videos, when you can - YouTube and a lot of the other video hosting sites provide a way to cut/paste HTML “object” tags. You can get the tag from YouTube and just paste it into your diary.

• Use pictures when appropriate - HTML tags (IMHO) work best here. Make sure the width of your picture is no larger than about 400 pixels so it doesn’t “bleed over” into the other content on the page.

This is a classic example of me not remembering all of my brilliant ideas from the shower, because I’m sure there is more to be said. My objective is to try to help others write successful diaries that are appreciated by the rest of the readership. Like I said, I’m not necessarily the authority on good diaries; this is just based on my own observations and writing experience. Please contribute any thoughts you might have in the comment thread.

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