Red State in Wired
By tacitus Posted in User Blogs — Comments (9) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Red State has been featured in Wired News. It's a generally fair writeup (even if it does leave out one-third of the RS founding team), more or less accurately portraying the emergence of right-wing blogospheric communities as something nascent, essentially untapped by the formal party organizations, and playing catch-up to the organizationally admirable examples of their left-wing predecessors.
The real gem in the story is the arrogance and ignorance of one Markos Moulitsas Zúniga:
"[The Republicans] don't need Red State or any other 'little person' with a website. They've got plenty of Enrons and Halliburtons to keep writing $2,000 checks."
Of course, Enron doesn't exist, and hasn't for some time; Halliburton is staggering under a combination of massive fines and a second-quarter loss, with the prospect of more to come. Meanwhile, hapless John Kerry is benefitting from the paltry largesse of small-time businessmen George Soros and Warren Buffett. To say nothing of a very few other small business owners. The man is struggling, I tell you, while the well-monied right wing attack machine churns relentlessly on. Or something like that, in the land of relentless self-pity and embitterment that is the American left.
Are we "little people"? Yeah. The three founders, twenty-five editors, and one-thousand-plus registered readers of Red State (in less than a month of existence!) are ordinary Americans from all walks of life. Little people? Sure. And who could be smaller than us?
The man who mocks the "little person," for one.
But little is not powerless. And it is not voiceless. You, the "little people" of Red State, are going to get your chance to show what little people can do. And you'll get it this very morning.
And congrats on the Wired mention.
Man, the more things change... I can remember a couple of years ago when everyone was talking about how the right dominated the blogosphere and wondering how the left would ever catch up.
that the Left is only for "the little people" that march in lockstep with the leftist dogma of those "who know best."
IMHO, his mocking carries a tinge of worry. I'm "little people" and I have his (and others like him) number.
....for now, anyway. In terms of real-world efficacy, at least. It'll swing back, especially if there's a Kerry Administration: nothing promotes a coalescence of community and activism more than defeat -- be it Republicans '92-'94, Democrats today, Palestinians, etc.
I always thought that Kos would be more open to the idea of Redstate, but it looks like he doesn't enjoy having to share any ink.
Kos acts like he invented the Scoop format, when in reality dKos just another Scoop site in the likeness of Kuro5hin (like Redstate).
The left has definitely taken the lead these days; and as you say, this is especially true in organizational terms.
Despite frequent policy disagreements, I'm glad to see Redstate doing well. I think that magnifying the role of the individual in party politics is a win, period.
Actually, Enron does still exist, although it's in bankruptcy and even when some remnant re-emerges, it's likely to want as low a political profile as one could imagine.
If it bit him in the arse. He comes close, in the other part of the quote about media - it's true that conservatives have used the alternative media to their benefit - and much more so than their liberal counterparts. (um, they already had the mainstream media)
But to hear the liberal whine about $2,000 checks? Give me a friggin break. The right has ALWAYS (since 1964, I think) had many more - and smaller - donors than the left. Ours has always been the grassroots, mass movement. But if it comforts them to convince them that their opponents are faceless monoliths of corportate greed and excess, I'm inclined to allow them that fantasy. Keeps their eye off the real contest.
Enjoying the site so far