The Republican National Committee is collecting questions for Sen. Barack Obama on anything you want to ask. You can send a text question or videotape one and post it on YouTube. It’s a clever way to finally throw some hardballs at Obama. I posed mine about earmarks — specifically Obama’s conflict of interest problem.
Conservatives and Republicans have whined for the past year about their disadvantage vs. the left’s activism, fundraising and journalism websites. I’ve monitored it closely on blogs and heard about it during countless panel discussions. There has been continuous talk about how to grow, adapt and change.
That discussion has revealed the monumental challenges facing the right — both online and offline. There’s frustration with the non-existent “Republican brand” and resistance among many conservatives to embrace technology. I’ve witnessed these challenges up close both on Capitol Hill and in my job at The Heritage Foundation, a 35-year-old institution that is (slowly) trying to strengthen its footing in the digital world.
Changes are happening all around, including one of the right’s predominate blogs, RedState. As Erick Erickson reported yesterday, this site will undergo its own restructuring as part of version 3.0. The new RedState will fill important voids on the right, particularly at the state and local level, one of the fastest growing areas for citizen journalism.
(At Heritage, we’ve taking steps to better define the right’s agenda on Capitol Hill with a new policy-focused blog called The Foundry and daily e-mail product, the Morning Bell. Our next objective is mobilizing our 338,000 members to have a greater impact on policy debates in Washington.)
RedState and its like-minded allies (Townhall, Hot Air, The Corner, NewsBusters, etc.) each offer something unique in the conservative online space. With a combination of reporting, analysis, punditry and activism, they each play an important role in determining the narrative and setting the agenda.
In the next few weeks, a new blog will join the mix. Dubbed The Next Right by its founders, the site will make an immediate impact with the collective brainpower of its three tech-savvy and politically adept creators. Patrick Ruffini, Jon Henke and Soren Dayton (a fellow contributor here at RedState) should be household names for anyone who follows the intersection on politics and technology.
I’m pumped about this new venture. The last few months have seen a considerable amount of backchannel discussion between the thought leaders about the sorry state of online activism on the right — often with great agreement on a direction moving forward. The good news is that the talent is there. I’ve long relied on Soren and Jon for high-level political analysis, and by bringing it under one roof and opening the door to more people, we hope this quickly becomes a hub right-leaning junkies like you.
We don’t think this alone will solve the activism gap. Anyone who tells you that they alone have the answer is fooling you. This is not “the Daily Kos of the right.” What we’re hoping to do is create momentum and an intellectual framework for action — because action ultimately starts with narratives and ideas. We want grassroots conservatives and libertarians to start believing that they can make a difference again — a sense all too many have lost. Only you – and not some well-funded 527 — can bring the movement into the future. Only when grassroots conservative have a direct stake in the future of the party are we effective. The Next Right is about creating a vision for a 21st century Republican Party and conservative movement.
I have great respect for the work of Patrick, Jon and Soren. All three were an integral part of a day-long modern media strategy session last August at Heritage that focused on some of these very topics. Their new creation promises to be an important contribution that will at the very least further the discourse and hopefully do much more. The future of the conservative movement online might depend on it.
My colleague Conn Carroll and Bill Scher of LiberalOasis discuss Sen. John McCain’s market-based health care proposal during this week’s installment on BloggingHeads.tv.
Earlier this week at Heritage’s Conservative Bloggers’ Briefing, we had the good fortune to chat with from former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who now serves as chairman of FreedomWorks. As usual, Armey was full of sound advice and wisdom about the state of affairs in Washington.
I came away from the conversation interested in two points he made — one about the lack of small-government principles among Republican politicians and the second about the 2008 presidential race.
Earlier this year, Armey and his team at FreedomWorks were not shy in their campaign to support Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) for a seat on House Appropriations Committee. They lost that fight when House Republicans tapped Rep. Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) for the job, but they sent an important message that Armey emphasized again this week: “Parochial thinking is bad politics for the Republican Party.”
There is a difference between the expectations of people who have a predilection to vote for Republicans and the expectations of people who have a predilection to vote for Democrats. People who have a predilection to vote for Democrats are interested in looking at the guy and being able to say to the guy, “What’s in it for me, now?”
When Tip O’Neil said to his party, “All politics is local, so bring home the bacon,” he was giving good advice to Democrats.
That is lousy advice for Republicans, and we didn’t know it because the people who have a predilection to vote for Republicans are people who are looking at you and saying, “Oh you want to go to Washington? You want to have the job? Well what’s in it for this country? Do you know who we are?”
Of course, that’s the exact opposite strategy employed for the National Republican Congressional Committee’s former chairman, Tom Reynolds. It was Reynolds who repeatedly said all politics was local. The result? Republicans lost 30 seat under his watch in 2006.
Unfortunately, Armey believes the GOP has yet to learn its lesson. Parochial politics, rather than a national vision and desire to grapple with major issues, continues to dominate among the old bulls in Congress. “Good policy makes good politics,” he says. Take the Senate’s recent vote on Sen. Jim DeMint’s amendment to put a one-year freeze on earmarks — a position supported by the GOP’s presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain. Fewer than half of Senate Republicans voted for it, opting instead to continue Congress’s appetite for pork.
Speaking about this year’s elections, Armey doesn’t have much hope for the Republican Party. In fact, he thinks Sen. Barack Obama will win the presidency and Democrats will pick up seats in both houses of Congress. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” he said. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that Obama and liberal lawmakers will be so out of touch with America that the electorate will be ready for a change come 2012.
Armey’s outook isn’t very appealing in the short term, of course, but if it produces another Ronald Reagan (who can move the GOP past parochial issues) we may all be better offer in the long run.
As one of the judges for the America’s Future Foundation’s College Blogger Contest, I’m very happy to congratulate Dartmouth College senior Joe Malchow, founder of Dartblog, as the winner of the $10,000 prize. All of the finalists were excellent, which makes Joe’s victory all the more impressive.
All of the finalists deserve recognition for their hard work and outstanding efforts. Thinking back to my college years, I remember how difficult it was to run the student newspaper at Ithaca with a staff of 100 writers, editors, photographers, designers and an ad team. What impressed me about these blogs, particularly the three winners, was the solid reporting that rivals what many college papers produce.
BloggingHeads.tv just got a whole lot better. I’m now able to embed the shows on my blog. The latest episode featuring my colleague Conn Carroll and Bill Scher of LiberalOasis focuses on the Clinton-Obama debate.
Last week I had an unanticipated interview with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff pop up during the week, preempting my “Five Questions” feature in favor of the blogger roundtable at DHS headquarters.
But I’m back this week with an interesting Q&A with David Kralik, who directs Internet strategy for American Solutions and manages the non-profit’s new Silicon Valley office. Kralik spent several years in Washington before heading west. I first met him when he was working on ShopFloor.org, the National Manufacturers Association blog. A few years later Kralik turned his admiration for Newt Gingrich — he ran a site called DraftNewt.org — into a job at American Solutions.
I was curious about what led him to California and what new strategies we might see from Gingrich and American Solutions in the future. (Kralik appears in the above photo at Solutions Day last September as Gingrich navigated Second Life.)
1) What prompted American Solutions to open an office in Silicon Valley?
We realized that what we want to accomplish cannot be done without embracing the latest technology and learning from the innovative people in Silicon Valley. For American Solutions to be successful and to ultimately transform government from a world that fails to a world that works, we need to reach out to all 513,000 elected officials and build a social network for them to communicate. That will definitely take major investments in technology in order to scale to that level.
2) Newt Gingrich has been a pioneer when it comes to embracing technology. How active will he be personally in the work you’re doing in Silicon Valley?
Yes, Newt has been a pioneer in embracing technology. Many people don’t remember that one of his first acts as Speaker was to make the House accessible to everyone online through the Thomas system. In that same spirit, he will definitely be involved in the overall vision and strategy of our Silicon Valley office. He realizes the importance of, and is personally very interested in, learning about new technologies that will enable us to communicate and organize more effectively online. Newt is also planning several visits to Silicon Valley in the coming year.
3) Why is it advantageous to be in the heart of the high-tech sector, and do you know of anyone else in the policy world who has taken this leap?
There’s a definite advantage to being 20 minutes away from Apple and 15 minutes away from Google. It really does help to build relationships by meeting face-to-face. When you read about all the cool new start-ups, it’s great that you don’t have to spend hours flying from the East Coast; you’re right in their backyard and can meet at anytime.
Some of the presidential campaigns have an office out here, but I suspect that it is more for fundraising and GOTV efforts. There are also a few policy groups located in the Silicon Valley area, but none that I know of are focused on learning about technology from the private sector. Being in Silicon Valley really does provide a perspective that often gets lost in the chatter and 24-hour news cycle that engulfs Washington, D.C.
It’s been a great decision to open an office out here and I hope more organizations from both all political persuasions will follow suit. There is a lot to learn out here.
4) What cool things can we expect from Newt Gingrich and American Solutions in the coming weeks and months?
We are going to continue to improve and enhance our core product, the Solutions Lab, in the coming months based on the feedback we’ve heard from other people. We’re also working on some new ways to socially network and engage people online. Finally, we are going to build an online learning platform that we’re calling the “Solutions Academy,” a place we hope becomes the central hub for learning about the principles of transforming government.
5) From your vantage point, what are some trends that policy organizations in Washington and the states should be paying attention to in 2008?
That’s a big question and I would like to address it by breaking it down into both trends and policy issues.
On the issues, as you know, Silicon Valley isn’t exactly a hotbed of center-right thinking, but interestingly enough there are issues that unite the Valley — issues that are either not being talked about in Washington or not getting solved. For example, on the technology policy front, we need to raise the limits of the H-1B Visas. Patent reform and having a permanent R&D Credit are also big issues. Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are also very much in favor of school choice and charter schools as a means to maintaining our competitive edge with other countries. These are the kind of issues, issues that bring people together, that American Solutions wants to play an active advocacy role. I hope Washington and the states start paying attention to them.
In terms of trends, I think there are four big ideas.
First, it’s going to be very interesting to see whether Web 2.0 clashes with emerging Web 3.0 concepts. Eric Schmidt has noted that Web 3.0 has much to do with “building applications that are pieced together” (mashup technology). Jerry Yang talked about Web 3.0 as a concept where the “distinction between professional, semi-professional and consumers will get blurred.” Broadly speaking, if Web 2.0 was all about putting the user in the driver’s seat, how might that clash with laws on intellectual property when it comes to mashups? Or data and identity portability and social networking? Does Facebook really own your social network that you built using Facebook? If you suddenly decide you don’t like Facebook, could you easily move it to MySpace and so on?
Second, I think there is a lot to be explored with 3D Internet, both as a social networking vehicle and how laws in the physical world apply to laws in the virtual world. IBM has more than 400 clients actively looking at virtual worlds as a means to foster greater collaboration. 3D Internet really is the next big thing. So, how do the laws apply to them? Second Life had to close down its banking operations for fear of money laundering violations.
Third, search continues to be one of the most important innovations of the web. I’m still waiting for somebody to come along and invent technology to Google my car keys. In the book, “The Google Story,” Sergey Brin and Larry Page were interviewed and noted that on an innovation level, Google is probably a “2” out of “10.” New search engines are being created every day and new ways of extracting data (i.e. video facial recognition searching) from an ever growing web are going to be invented. Also, search as it relates to the semantic web is something that is just beginning to be explored. We’ll soon be able to Google the entire Library of Congress and even your own DNA. That is some really powerful stuff, but these also have huge implications for copyright and privacy issues, respectively. Google has a lot of tough policy fights ahead of it if it wishes to maintain its market position.
Finally, I think there is a lot to look at about what more Silicon Valley, particularly Sand Hill Road, can do to invest and develop green technology. Jeff Immelt has noted that, ‘Green is Green.’ There is a lot of money to be made in Green technology to reduce one’s carbon footprint. This comes in the form of new communication technologies (virtual worlds, video conferencing) that lessen the need for travel but provide just the same level of trust that in-person meetings offer. Also clean power generation and devices that use less energy but provide more output.
With the Iraq hearings wrapping up in Congress today, I encourage you to watch my Heritage Foundation colleague Conn Carroll on BloggingHeads.tv explain how the violence in Basra is as a preview of what would happen in Iraq should Barack Obama become president. Militia power in Basra became a factor largely due to the premature British withdrawal. Conn and Bill Scher of Liberal Oasis also cover topics such as John McCain’s economic platform and chat about pro-Hillary Clinton bloggers.
Today marks the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition, a special event for my hometown brewery in Utica, N.Y., which sold the first beer after the Volstead Act was modified on April 7, 1933.
As the story goes, the F.X. Matt Brewing Co. sold the first bottle of Utica Club just 60 minutes after President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill allowing for the legal consumption of beer. According to the brewery, “The first batch of Utica Club beer was immediately brought to the Hotel Utica, and their Head Chef brought a bottle into the ballroom. It was presented on a silver tray while the orchestra played, ‘Happy Days Are Here Again.’”
In the 75 years since Prohibition ended, beer has made a remarkable comeback. According to the Brewers Association, only half of U.S. breweries survived Prohibition. By 1978, there were only 42 breweries in America. Today, however, the trend is moving in the opposite direction. There are nearly 1,400 craft breweries in the United States.
The F.X. Matt Brewing Co. is one of the shining examples. Its line of Saranac products can be found across America, giving downtrodden Utica a reason to be proud.
Join me in having a beer (or two) tonight to celebrate.
An e-mail from MoveOn.org arrived in my inbox tonight promising “10 things you should know about John McCain.” For a candidate who needs to repair ties with the right, it appears MoveOn is more than willing to help. Most of the 10 sell McCain as the ideal conservative candidate. I’ve highlighted a few of my favorites below.
2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain “will make Cheney look like Gandhi.”
4. McCain opposes a woman’s right to choose. He said, “I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.”
5. The Children’s Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children’s health care bill last year, then defended Bush’s veto of the bill.
9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his “spiritual guide,” Rod Parsley, believes America’s founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a “false religion.” McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church “the Antichrist” and a “false cult.”