Saturday, December 24, 2005

Internet Fosters Local Political Movements

COMMENTARY
Because of the Christmas holiday, I had intended to give politics a rest. However, the instant I read, Internet Fosters Local Political Movements, I knew the rest was over. The piece, written by Ron Fournier, does more than I ever could to illustrate what conservatives have been saying about the Left:

-- Liberals have joined together to promote a secular agenda.
-- MoveOn.org has been a driving force in the organization of the secular movement.
-- Liberals will both deny the existence of and promote the organized secular movement.
-- Liberals like to get together and complain about things, but seldom offer solutions.
-- Liberals like to take credit for things others have done. For example, liberal Internet activists have lagged far behind the conservative activists, who often point to the breaking of the Monica Lewinsky scandal by Matt Drudge in 1998 as a waypoint in the battle against liberal news bias. However, Fournier would have us believe liberals are at the forefront of Internet activism and ignores the Swift Boat Vets, Rathergate, and a whole list of long-running Republican and conservative blogs.

I often think of conservatives as a group who choose to listen to talk radio while on the way to and from their jobs. With those jobs, conservatives can also afford greater access to new communications technology and the Internet. Here, liberals are perhaps at a disadvantage. Liberals should blame the failure to motivate all their constituent base on the idea that those folks simply care more about enjoying their secular, liberal lifestyles than politics of the lifestyle itself.

NEWSLINE
"At a time when we are craving community and meaning in our lives, people are using these technologies to find others with the same complaints and organize them," he said. "They don't have to just sit in a coffee shop and gripe about politics."

NEWSBYTE
Internet Fosters Local Political Movements
FORT MYERS, Fla. Dec 24, 2005 (AP) -- Frustrated by government and empowered by technology, Americans are filling needs and fighting causes through grass-roots organizations they built themselves some sophisticated, others quaintly ad hoc. This is the era of people-driven politics.

TENSION: GetOverIt.org
GRAVITY: A paycheck


Tags: , , , , , , , ,
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home