The Next Right
- Posted by Beth on May 8th, 2008 filed in 2008 election, Blogs, Candidates, General, Internet, John McCain, Politics, Support this activism · conservatives · new media · Republicans
I’ve complained in the past about how ineffectual the right side of the blogosphere is; it’s part of the reason I grumble about how I “hate blogging,” in fact. Oh, yeah, we had Rathergate and the Reuters Fauxtography scandal, and a couple other things that hit critical mass, but that’s just a handful of things in the last four years or so. It’s nothing compared to the things the Nutroots gets done, and I’m not even talking about the enormous amounts of money they can raise compared to us.
The difference: While we talk about how they are negative–and they are–they’re also working FOR something. We’re just generally carping from the cheap seats, playing at punditry and media criticism. They’re getting the nutroots agenda heard on Capitol Hill regularly, and they even were able to take down a Senator who was once a Vice-Presidential candidate (Lieberman) in a primary. There’s no way Ned Lamont could have beaten Joe Lieberman in the primary without the Nutroots. And now, the conservative blogosphere is top-heavy with people who are largely lukewarm (or worse) toward our Presidential candidate, and more against the idea of a President Barack Obama. Well, it’s pretty much our own fault as a collective whole.
Enter The Next Right.
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The Next Right is a new project started by Patrick Ruffini, Jon Henke, and Soren Dayton, designed to foster political activism using technology like blogs and other Web 2.0 structures. Patrick Ruffini introduces it here:
If you’re looking for pure-play opinion and link bait on sundry topics from Ann Coulter to Jimmy Carter/Hamas, you won’t find it here. What you will find is in-depth (often unabashedly technical) writing about the election, the polls, the strategy, and the issues. Our analysis will track truth and stay true to the numbers. But it will self-consciously serve a greater purpose — educating YOU to be your own political strategist and start doing something — whether that’s blogging about your local Congressional race or Democratic corruption in your state, organizing fundraising drives, and maybe even managing races or running for office yourself. Only a revival of civic engagement at the grassroots level will create a conservative future we want: one that is pork-free and robust in the defense of our country and its values. We can’t call a switchboard and wait for Washington to fix the mess. We have to do it ourselves, from the ground up, in every state.
[...]
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.
We need this. Desperately. Go read more about the how and whys of The Next Right, and sign up to be notified when it’s open for business. TAKE BACK CONTROL OF YOUR GOVERNMENT.
THIS MEANS YOU.
Introducing…”The Next Right” « Nice Deb says:
[...] sign up, and get plugged in. Like Beth at MVRWC says, it’s about time we conservatives stopped whining and complaining. It’s time we [...]
Lord Bitememan says:
We had a saying back at UMich for why conservative activism was so seemingly lacking. It was “Can you imagine the protest, ‘hey-hey, ho-ho, we support the status quo.’”
Implicit in this is, I think, the heart of why you don’t see a lot more conservative activism. Fighting for something you want to see is a lot easier to get behind than getting people to fight to keep things the way they are. It happens, to wit, but really only when there is a perceived threat or grievence somewhere. Gay marriage bans, for example, wouldn’t have been thought of till movements fighting to legalize it met with success in a few places. Ward Connerly has had incredible success fighting Affirmative Action. Other than that, conservatism’s role is more fundamentally one of impediment to reckless change. That’s a hard sell to get people marching with placards.
Repack Rider says:
Beth says:
Repack Rider,
I find it amusing, to put it politely, that someone who’s using Google Blog search to find everyone writing about this and who has already felt the need to shit in Ruffini’s comments, feels he has All The Answers and is the least bit qualified to offer useful counsel.
In other words, until you’ve proven yourself to be anything besides a poo-flinging monkey troll, FUCK OFF.
Lord Bitememan says:
Well, not to lend credence to Fudgepack Rider’s rantings, but I think there is something to be addressed in that. It’s great to have passion, organization, and the ability to counter-punch the liberals, but there’s something lacking in it that I think is endemic to conservatism today, and that’s direction. Where do we want to take this? Like I said, it’s something I’m asking about the whole of conservatism today. We lack an affirmative agenda. We know what we DON’T want to do, but what is it we DO want to do? Like I said, it’s great to shore up the passion deficit, but I think what we really need, nationally, is a new Contract with America to get behind. That would be something to fight for, the sort of thing we can take up placards and demonstrate over.
Beth says:
We lack an affirmative agenda. We know what we DON’T want to do, but what is it we DO want to do? Like I said, it’s great to shore up the passion deficit, but I think what we really need, nationally, is a new Contract with America to get behind.
AMEN!!!
Here’s what I want:
- Flat Tax (NOT the unFair Tax)
- School Vouchers
- Social Security Reform
- “Free enterprise zones” in urban/poor areas (Jack Kemp is still called “liberal” and “pandering” by some ignorant conservatives because he supports this, and people who say that are absurdly wrong and fucking STUPID).
- SENSIBLE immigration reform (meaning NOT what the disgusting Minutemen/VDARE crowd wants, but more like what McCain’s saying now) - and I know I’m a minority in wanting that, at least among conservatives on the internets
- A serious effort at bringing the young and especially minorities into the GOP and conservatism. Conservatism will die off if the GOP becomes the party of only older white people (and mostly men). I blame poor leaders and nasty people as the public face of conservatism (Coulter, Robertson, etc.) for making the GOP and conservatism so unappealing to people. We need to start by repudiating the hateful people, but also need to explain a whole lot more effectively why conservatism is better for women, minorities, and young adults.
- Conservative support for alternative energy research and development. Fuck the oil cartel, with their terror-supporting fascist leaders. Supporting Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, etc. are NOT conservative values. Just because libs think we’re creating Goreball Worming doesn’t mean we have to ignore the national security implications of oil dependence. Carbon offsets? I want a damn terrorist oil sheik/Hugo offset!
Lord Bitememan says:
That’s a solid agenda, particularly some of those latter points.
geoff says:
I made sort of the same point as Lord BMM over at ND’s. Conservatives don’t want an activist government. So our politics tends toward the defensive: trying to stop government from spending too much, getting too big, and changing things that don’t need changing. When your values are inherently opposed to growth of government, you’re not likely to be an activist trying to add programs.
Conservative Belle says:
Wow, Beth. I really like your agenda in the comments and agree with Lord BMS that we need to counter the criticism with a solution.
Newt has been criticized for appearing in that commercial with Pelosi, but he’s not afraid to address the climate change subject with real energy policies. He’s not dodging the topic all together. We do need a contract with America soon. If not we will end up losing more seats in Congress, which is happening even now.