conservative platform

Over the past week, I've noticed folks having many takes on why the right has not been able to match what the left has created online. There have been many good arguments for the cause of that failure, but I think I've noticed the biggest one that has yet to be discussed.

For years those on the left have bemoaned the fact that conservative talk radio has overtaken the airwaves and helped launch many successful endeavors. They tried at first to create their own talk radio movement, but that flat out collapsed. Their next move was to suggest the bringing back of the archaic 'fairness doctrine'. This also failed, for now.

With no other place to go, hard driven liberal activists went to the only place they really could, online. It was here that they were able to take advantage of the speed of the internet and it's ability to build online communities. They created open transparent web sites where activists were able to be localized, communicate, exchange ideas, and raise money for causes they felt strong about. The result of  which is now a technologically savy online liberal machine that is able to pull large numbers of individuals and money to any cause in a matter of hours or days. It's quite a formidable enterprise, and one that should not be underestimated by Republicans focusing on the 'old way' of doing things.

Now it's the conservatives who bemoan the fact that we are the ones being left behind on the net.  We're all sitting here now trying to figure out how we can build something similar to counter the online liberal machine. It's my belief, that we have the opportunity to build something to rival our friends on the left, in fact I think we even have an advantage that they never had, and that is the power of talk radio.

I know it's simple to say that, but sometimes the answer to the hardest problem is just  a simple answer that's right in front of your face. Talk radio has been right in our face for years, and it's really about time that someone finds a way to take advantage of what we have in it.

When people tell me that the left is kicking our ass online, I've always replied that we were really kicking their ass on the air waves and that if we wanted our own Moveon.org style site, we could have one if talk radio just got behind it. Nothing like that has happened though, and people still just talk about "where's our Moveon?"

For conservatives online, our inability to link with talk radio is comparable to the US Navy heading out to battle without it's feared aircraft carrier battle groups. The Navy's strength and power is primarily built around those battle groups, and they couldn't expect to take the fight to our enemies without them.  Conservatives similarily have this in talk radio, yet in no real sufficient way is talk radio's true power being harnessed here on the internet.

Conservative talk radio is our version of the aircraft carrier. Much of our conservative strength is built around it and we use it to project our influence. The liberals wisely fear it's lethal power, yet when it comes to the battle online, we leave them tied up back in the harbor.

To this day, historians debate on what would have happened if the American aircraft carriers weren't at sea during the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. It would have been truly catastrophic and left both Hawaii and the west coast almost defenseless. If conservatives were to lose talk radio one day, where would conservatism be?

We have to remember folks, that a big goal of the netroots was to create something to counter our talk radio. If they succeed in sending more liberal Democrats to the House, Senate, and even the White House, they just might wind up sinking talk radio for good by bringing back the Fairness Doctrine.

Yes, it may sound extreme, but when did that ever stop the left?

It's my belief that at some point in time, maybe when circumstances demand so, someone or some group will figure out how to work with the vast talk radio platform and create an online organization that will rival and one day surpass what the left has built online.

When will that be? I don't know, but I hope it's sooner, rathan than later. It's time to bring the massive firepower of talk radio and our best online minds together now before it's too late.

That's just my two cents. 

Lane is the founder of the former Blogs For Fred Thompson and currently runs Blogs For John McCain.

I believe that all too often in the past, conservatives have dismissed some issues because they didn't believe they were relevant.  Perhaps the best example is health care.  I would guess that the vast majority of conservatives have health care.  Likely for this reason, conservatives did not think health care ranked as a high priority.  We sort of ceded the issue to liberals.  The only thing we cared about was avoiding universal health care.  The ferocious backlash to HillaryCare was testament to this.  Conservatives were really good at identifying what they were against.

However, in the 15 years since HillaryCare, the health care system has deteriorated greatly.  The cost of providing employer based health care has skyrocketed.  Real wages for Americans have stagnated in the last decade, mostly because health care has been so expensive.  High gas prices get all the attention because gas prices are posted on signs outside gas stations.  But health care has been a greater burden on families than gas prices have.  Saying that we have "the best health care system in the world", as I hear talk radio hosts say on occasion, defines being out of touch.

So what is the solution?  I'm not an expert on the subject, but it seems to me that the best way out of this is to delink health coverage from employers.  The employer provided health insurance system is a product of World War II wage controls.  To skirt them, employers offered health coverage for competitive advantage.  Amazingly, this system survives to the present day.  What this system does is that it makes the costs of health care not apparent to those using it.  You are much more likely to demand that MRI or a 3rd ACL surgery if you don't see the bills.  Delinking employer based health coverage would lead to greater rationing of services, not through government fiat, but through market forces.

Creating a real free market health system (don't be fooled, the current system is already half government controlled) means creating a national market for health care.  If you are forced to buy a plan from an in-state provider, then you may be forced to pay much higher rates than if another less expensive provider from another state was available.

If we are crafting health insurance reform, we are probably going to have to make the painful concession of insuring the poor through the government.  I know that this will be costly and will be inefficient and be a raw deal for those enrolled in the program.  But politically, I can't see a way we can continue with a health regime where some aren't insured.  We may believe that we will avoid expenditures by not covering the poor, but we will pay another way, through emergency room visits from those who are uninsured.  The government picks up the tab for that anyway.

The goal of avoiding single payer health care is important.  But to be effective, conservatives must also be for something, not merely against something the Democrats advocate.  If we don't make health care a top priority immediately, then make no mistake, we WILL have socialized health care that ruins everyone's coverage, not just the poor's.  And if that happens, the conservative movement will have to bear much of the blame for dismissing the pressing needs of the health care system with a shrug.

Originally posted at www.maidensong.wordpress.com

If ever there was evidence needed to prove that the GOP finds itself in a place where its message lacks resonance with with the American voting public, it was provided by the stunning special election upsets that have taken place in recent weeks in traditionally Republican strongholds. The Republican losses appear to be a disturbing precursor of things to come.

These losses set the House and Senate Republicans atwitter as they came to realize that there was no longer any seat that could be considered a 'safe seat,' and started the main stream liberal media buzzing happily about the coming Democratic apocalypse.

What no one seems to be talking about however, is HOW the dems are winning in these GOP strongholds. They are doing it by running as far to the right as they can, without actually being a Repubican conservative. If this trend continues, and if elected officials actually follow through on the platforms on which they run, a Democratic 'majority' may not be the liberal nightmare we see coming down the pike after all. That caucus may in fact be a party potentially divided against itself, with senators and congressmen ripe for crossover picking.

This does not mean that Republicans shouldn't fight agressively to retain or win seats in the fall. It does mean, however, that Americans in general may not suffer as much 'damage' as they might, if a Democratic majority in congress was more liberal than conservative.

The congressional Blue Dogs are increasing in numbers, and continue to flex their clout, (as they have demonstrated already at least once this session, see link beow)

http://republicanleader.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=90894

Their presence in congress, along with that of Republicans who have rediscovered their conservative roots, may be enough to stymie much of the liberal tax and spend agenda that the Pelosi coalition might try to push through.

On a recent MSNBC Sunday morning round table analysis, Harold Ford Jr. (D) observed that there was a 'lesson to be learned' by Democrats from the southern special election upsets. "Democrats cannot run liberal campaigns" he said. Republican panelists in on the discussion, including former presidential candidate governor Mike Huckabee, pointed out the dangers that would be inherant in running against conservative Democrats, including the possible backlash caused by attempting to smear them generically as 'liberal' if they are known within the community as being pro-life, pro-gun and otherwise 'conservative' by the layman's standards. Republicans are going to have to run as conservatives, and not 'against 'liberals' if they want to be successful.

The one good thing about the leftist extremism being discovered this primary cycle, scary as it is,..is that it is forcing the true Democratic base to find their moderate center identity again. More and more on pro Hillary blogs, I'm seeing Barack Obama labled Marxist/Socialist. Many who were swept up in Move On sympathy for Bill, have realized just how far left of center their party has veered, and are determined to win it back; even if that means electing John McCain.

This website is about being forward thinking and creatively agressive about the next direction that the Right needs to take. As events unfolded this primary season, it became more and more obvious to me at least, that the survival of the right, seems tied to its ability to be the dominant partner of the 'conservative Middle'. This is why John McCain and Mike Huckabee with their almost populist appeal, were the last men standing on the right. The great irony of Obama's campaign, is that he's running as the great unifier, when every indication is that his idea of unity, is everybody taking two steps to the left. Not going to happen.

But the people do want change...so where does that leave us? I'm going to make a stretch and argue that McCain/Moderate conservative VP is going to hold the whitehouse, because Obama will not be able to find his way to the center again if the opposition research and 527s have their way. But I think the dems are going to crush the GOP in the congressional races.

Watch for the make up of the majority though. The Democrats if they are smart, will run Blue Dogs in conservative districts, and they will be our ace in the hole on the really big bills. (I hope!)

If a 'moderate' president McCain has a largely 'moderate' congress to work with, it is to be hoped that 'moderately more' progress can be made in Washington that we have seen in recent years.

Maybe the Next Right... is the Middle.

Thoughts?