Redstate

By krempasky Posted in Technology — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Conservatives love to complain, rightly, about the bias and mistreatment they’ve endured at the hands of the mainstream media. Spend a few moments with Google and you’ll find countless studies, anecdotes and analysis regarding the hate-hate relationship that conservatives by and large have with Big Media.

In the midst of all the clamoring about conservatives and the media, however – there’s a story that’s largely been left untold (until now): how conservatives abandoned (in a sense) that mainstream media in favor of new and alternative media. The truth is: while conservatives have been getting kicked around like a rented mule in the mainstream media for a long, long time – at the same time they’ve been pioneers of new and alternative media: direct mail, cable television, talk radio, and the Internet.

They used these (at the time) secret weapons to build a movement, take control of a party, elect a President, and drive their issues and philosophy to the center stage of American politics. They followed the tradition of the pamphleteers of the American Founding to get ahead of the politicians and the intelligentsia and take what they wanted.

Now for the first time, that story has been told. In America’s Right Turn: How Conservatives Used New & Alternative Media to Take Power, right-wing direct mail pioneer Richard Viguerie and his co-author David Franke chronicle how conservatives decided in the wake of the Goldwater defeat that they would never get a fair shake in the New York Times (ok, that’s not news and wasn’t then, either) and that they had better figure out another way to communicate with the American people.

However, there remains a chapter unwritten in this story: how conservatives – for the first time in four decades are actually behind (and far behind) the curve when it comes to the alternative media. To be sure, we still own talk radio – no matter what Al Franken says. Cable television continues to lean right – and conservative direct mail is still far more successful than its liberal counterpart.

So we come to the Internet (and in no small measure – the reason for RedState). While conservatives easily hold their own when it comes to news and opinion communication on the Internet, we lag far, far behind the left when the chips are on the table: when it’s time to act, to donate, to make a difference.

We’re awfully good at articulating ourselves – we’re rather sorry about doing anything that makes a difference “in the real world.” Again, look at Howard Dean: tens of millions of dollars. Sure, their campaign struggled like Jerry Nadler in a Speedo – but they were a smashing success when it came to building lists of supporters, donors, and volunteers.

Look at Kos, Atrios – while they loooove to complain about Bush’s Rangers and Pioneers, they’re not only playing that part for the Democrats - *they’re doing a better job.* (see lifetime value of donor in the book)

The veritable vacuum of similar activity on the Right (hear that? those are crickets) led Tacitus to develop RedState. And so here we are today.

So – go buy the book. Realize that as bloggers, you belong to a rich tradition of activism in this country. Not just writers or academics or people standing on soapboxes, there’s never been a shortage of those. You’re part of the alternative media – and that tradition is one of action and change. Live up to it. We’ve never had “equal opportunity” in the mainstream media and we never will. What we can’t afford is to lose the tools we *do* have, the most important being alternative media driving change.

Update [2004-8-17 18:54:53 by krempasky]: Gah! Forgot to mention that Viguerie has a blog, too.