The Amazing Diversity of the Rightosphere
Welcome Instapundit Readers!! Click here for my my convention coverage.
In this post as well as several others from St. Paul, I reported how impressed I was with my fellow bloggers some of whom I had met thee for the first time, having theretofore only known them as pixels on my computer screen.
Not only were they an impressive lot, but they were a diverse one as well. Current “netroots” ideology notwithstanding, none were in the tank for the incumbent Republican president or current Republican presidential nominee. Yes, most supported the president on a number of issues and defended him (often vigorously) against attacks from the left. Yet, they did not hesitate to take him on where they thought he erred or otherwise blundered.
As to the man being nominated in St. Paul, some were enthusiastic about his candidacy, others lukewarm, at least one noncommittal, yet warming, with a number supporting him largely because of Sarah Palin, while a handful increasingly skeptical of the nominee because of that choice.
We conservative (and libertarian) bloggers are far from monolithic. Even the three bloggers at Powerline have different perspectives–and very different personalities. (John, for example, seems to warming to Palin while Paul remains skeptical.)
This diversity was not limited to the various conservative viewpoints expressed, but also included our geographical, demographic, ethic and religious background. Here were Jews, evangelical Christians, atheists, agnostics. There were men and women ranging in age from early 20s (college students) to late middle-age.
To correct the impression of right-leaning bloggers as walking in lockstep with some set right-wing ideology and with the Republican leadership, all you need do is sit down and talk to these various bloggers and listen to what they have say or just read what they write.
Below, I list (to the best of my recollection & in no particular order) the bloggers I met in St. Paul. Just click on their name to access their blog and their ideas:
John Hinderaker, Scott Johnson, Paul Mirengoff, Glenn Reynolds, Jim (Gateway Pundit), Ed Morrisey, Ed Driscoll, Peter Robinson, James Lileks, Michael Barone, Michael Bates, Hugh Hewitt, Mary Katharine Ham, Scott Ott, Jennifer Rubin, Patrick Ruffini, Jon Henke, Patrick Hynes, Steve Green, Roger Simon, Peg Kaplan, Fausta Wertz, Mickey Kaus (who would balk at being called conservative, but he remains respected in the rightosphere), Jim Geraghty, Ramesh Ponnuru, Mark Hemingway (and a few left out because I’m blogging from a cafe and not from home where I have my cards and notes).
32 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
I agree. I am far from ecstatic about McCain and it is not because of gay issues. McCain has a history of supporting the stifling of political free speech with McCain-Fiengold, supporting higher taxes and what amounts to an open border with Mexico. I read other gay blogs that are so in the tank for Obama that I can no longer post on those websites. It just won’t make a difference.
Comment by Swampfox — September 7, 2008 @ 8:09 pm - September 7, 2008
Wait a minute. You are upset with gay sites who are ‘in the tank’ for Obama but you don’t mind that gay extreme right wing sites are ‘in the tank’ for Palin/McCain?
Perhaps your blinders are a bit too restrictive. Liberals question authority and demand answers. It is, IMO, the right who consistently falls in line with The Word of their dear leaders. I truly think conservatives are frightened little children who need a daddy (or mommy) figure to make them feel safe and secure against their latest scary monster.
P.S. Where’s Gannon/Guckert’s (you know, the White House press core hooker) site listed?
Comment by Liberal Gay Patriot (Liberals Love America - the REAL America) — September 7, 2008 @ 10:58 pm - September 7, 2008
ancient history is ancient history. it’s found here.
Comment by michael — September 7, 2008 @ 11:07 pm - September 7, 2008
I truly think conservatives are frightened little children who need a daddy (or mommy) figure to make them feel safe and secure against their latest scary monster.
Which is why, of course, that gay liberals are constantly screaming to Big Momma Government to bail them out of their lack of job/lack of housing/lack of life/lack of money/lack of sexual responsibility.
Gay conservatives have lives, and don’t need the government to protect them from anything other than Islamist terrorists. Gay liberals need the government to provide them everything and support those same Islamist terrorists.
Comment by North Dallas Thirty — September 7, 2008 @ 11:54 pm - September 7, 2008
Incorrect. I don’t ask much of the government other than hope they spend my tax dollars wisely for the things that make the country work and certainly not year after year of “emergency” war spending bills. You may recall that a republican administration originally TRAINED & ARMED Osama and his band of merry terrorists and the bush family are great buddies (and funders) with the Saudis (like the who, if you check, were the majority of the hijackers involved in 9/11) and daddy bush was having tea and cookies on together on 9/11/01 (before they were spirited away to safety despite the air traffic ban).
I’d be pleased if government would concentrate of finding real terrorists and not spending blood and treasure on invasions of secular, sovereign countries (even ones with really bad guys at the helm), occupying them, and breading tons more terrorists — but that’s me.
I think we all know, as bush said, “I don’t think we can win ‘it’” meaning the so called “war on terror”. As terrorism is a tactic and not a tangible military. We should be concentrating on gathering intelligence and operating in covert ways rather than extremely overt ways - angering and losing hearts and minds all across the globe.
We cannot afford another neocon administration.
Comment by Liberal Gay Patriot (Liberals Love America - the REAL America) — September 8, 2008 @ 6:57 am - September 8, 2008
The real test is how well do liberals govern. The answer from the rotting urban centers of Detroit, Buffalo, St. Louis, Baltimore, Philadelphia and other large cities run by liberals for decades is … not very. All these areas are marked by failed schools, crumbling infrastructure, inferior public services, high taxes, and multi-generational poverty. The middle class is fleeing San Francisco, whose sanctuary policies allow families to be murdered in the streets by illegal alien criminals.
Bush sits down with Saudis to discuss oil, and the left is apoplectic. Nancy Pelosi sits down with terrorist-supporting despot Bashar Assad to discuss undermining US foreign policy, and the left cheers. While the Democrats in congress block the development of US energy reserves, thus keeping us dependent on the very Saudi oil ticks the left claims to despise, while driving up the cost of fuel and other basic necessities for the working people they claim to want to help.
The left complained that Bush was creating a “Police State” by listening in on phone calls made to known terrorists. But when Barack Obama proposes creating a National Security Police Force with capabilities comparable to the US military, no one on the left questions how such a force might be abused.
The left exalts criminals like Mumia Abu-Jamal and hurls invective at people of faith. The left exalts traitors like Lynne Stewart, and attacks patriots like David Petraeus. The left cozies up to America’s enemies (Venezuela, Iran), and insults our allies (Colombia, Israel). The left invites a genocidal holocaust denier to speak at Columbia U, but conservative speakers are persona non-grata on most college campuses.
Meanwhile, the left pursues the government regulation of news content through the Fairness Doctrine. Left-wing legislatures and city councils try to dictate what we can eat (bans on trans-fats, outlawing fast food restaurants in South Central Los Angeles). A Democrat congress dictates what we’re allowed to drive (fuel efficiency laws) and what kind of lightbulbs we’re allowed to use. They send their own kids to private schools, but block voucher programs that would give poorer, darker children the same option.
If you want to know why I’m a right-winger, the foregoing is a pretty good start.
Comment by V the K — September 8, 2008 @ 7:50 am - September 8, 2008
“. You may recall that a republican administration originally TRAINED & ARMED Osama and his band of merry terrorists ”
This is false. The Americans never funded nor trained the Arab Jihadis fighting in Afghan.
The Americans only supported the local Afghan-based Jihadis.
And the Republicans did not create that program.
Carter started it.
Just like Carter let the clerics in Iran take control.
We cant afford to let any more anti-semitic , America-hating Leftist Democrats in office .. by your logic of course.
Comment by Vince P — September 8, 2008 @ 8:39 am - September 8, 2008
Whoever armed Osama does not negate the necessity of confronting al Qaeda and killing as many of them as possible. Yes, I said, killing them, not arresting them, reading them their rights, and bringing them for a trial with an ACLU lawyer and an OJ Simpson jury.
9-11 was an act of war, not an act of vandalism.
I note with satisfaction the possibility that fat American jihadi Adam Gahahn may have snarfed his last Ho-Ho.
Comment by V the K — September 8, 2008 @ 8:53 am - September 8, 2008
Thank you V the K for an excellent summary of reasons that the left cannot be allowed to control all three branches of government. I am a new visitor (conservative/libertarian, 50+ woman), having followed a link from Powerline. I appreciate clear minded thinking no matter where it comes from. Dan is correct in his observations from the convention that Republicans have a big tent with very diverse demographics. Of the two major parties, it is Republican principles which are more closely aligned with our libertarian founders’, with limited government being so clearly expressed.
My own large family is made up of a diversity of political opinions ranging from extreme left to conservative right (me), young and old, gay and straight, single, married with and without children. Religion does not really factor into my position on the issues, except for taking personal responsibility and “do unto others…”, etc.
Obama’s past associations and career moves up to this point concern me greatly. I believe he and Biden both are simply smooth operators, completely full of themselves with an entitlement mentality. They cannot be trusted in any way, much less as our nation’s leaders.
Comment by Trice — September 8, 2008 @ 9:37 am - September 8, 2008
Well, I guess now that bush/haliburten/blackwater/and the rest of the military industrial complex has planted, watered and fertilized (the neocons are good at providing that) terrorists in Iraq we will never get out. Good news for no-bid neocon contractors - bad news for everyone else.
Comment by Liberal Gay Patriot (Liberals Love America - the REAL America) — September 8, 2008 @ 11:22 am - September 8, 2008
Ok, now Liberal is saying The US planted terrorists into Iraq?
Ok, Peter, NDT, Fess up. Which of you is doing the parody? This is almost as good as Loyal Democrat on Townhall was.
Comment by The Livewire — September 8, 2008 @ 11:27 am - September 8, 2008
He blames Americans for “planting” terrorists in Iraq, but claims he loves America?
Like Ike loved Tina.
Comment by V the K — September 8, 2008 @ 11:33 am - September 8, 2008
(snicker) Liberals Love America - the REAL America (snicker)
The REAL America apparently being something apart from the one in existence that they currently inhabit.
Comment by DoDoGuRu — September 8, 2008 @ 1:10 pm - September 8, 2008
“Ok, Peter, NDT, Fess up. Which of you is doing the parody? ”
Agree. He’s good!
Comment by Jim,MtnViewCA,USA — September 8, 2008 @ 1:13 pm - September 8, 2008
Wow, a very nice post about the blogging conditions at the convention, hijacked to discuss the race.
The ext step is the ability to blog without being there, using the Internet to present the convention. Esp important since television picks and chooses what is shown and does so rather poorly.
Comment by Chuck Simmins — September 8, 2008 @ 1:23 pm - September 8, 2008
Instead of ‘Rightosphere’, we should call it the ‘CommonSenseOSphere’. That way, the contrast between us and our opponents becomes more apt.
Comment by Tood — September 8, 2008 @ 1:37 pm - September 8, 2008
[...] Savvy Sissy Willis LGF: Sarah Palin and Creationism Byron York on on Palin positions Gay Patriot: The Diversity of the Right Palin and what she learned playing girls basketball in the 1970’s Neo-neocon: It’s the [...]
Pingback by Over Palin; not “hypocrisy,” you never knew us - UPDATED | The Anchoress — September 8, 2008 @ 1:50 pm - September 8, 2008
“originally TRAINED & ARMED Osama and his band of merry terrorists”
This is the most common, false, accusation of the right that liberal commenters make on the net. I don’t care about anything else that has been said. It is this one that I’m am soooo sick of hearing. If you read Charlie Wilson’s war, you get an in-depth history of the dealings of America and Afgan freedom fighters. Russia was doing truly terrible things to the Afgan population and giving them the ability to fight back was absolutely justified.
Some of those jihandis who were supplied with weapons paid for by the US joined up with the Taliban, a Pakistani organization funded by rich Arabs, years later. Some of the jihandis who were supplied with weapons paid for by the US fought against the Taliban when they tried to take over the country. However, the Taliban did not exist during the Russian occupation and Bin Ladan was just one of hundreds of Arab financiers who were involved in the struggle against the Russians.
Comment by ChrisGreen — September 8, 2008 @ 3:32 pm - September 8, 2008
#11 - Sorry, LW, but that’s not me. I couldn’t control my gag reflexes long enough to try and write like a libtard.
That, and I’d have to lose about half my IQ to make it seem authentic.
Regards,
Peter H.
Comment by Peter Hughes — September 8, 2008 @ 4:20 pm - September 8, 2008
They still aren’t diverse enough to have invited me.
I think it’s fear of the potty mouth.
Comment by Jeff G — September 8, 2008 @ 6:30 pm - September 8, 2008
So much so they fell all over each other and strained the absured to circle the wagons around lord BJ, oral sex, his lack of interest in terrorism etc. They “questioned authority” by trying to convince us that it’s ok to lie.
LGP, you’re a fricken joke proved, at least, by your Michael Moore-ish assertions that Iraq was “secular” (with Allahu Akbar on the flag) and that Hussein was just sitting around minding his own business. Time was that liberals used to give a crap about Iraq by trying to tell us that he was starving half a million children. Used to be that liberals pretended to give a crap about Iraq when they passed a bill requiring the removal of Hussein from power. Suddenly, a Republican (who didn’t let them steal the WH) actually did it and you have to rehash old, thoroughly debunked lies. That’s pathetic.
As I always say: no matter how much you polish a turd, it’s still a turd. And, my friend, you comments here are nothing but huge steamers.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — September 9, 2008 @ 2:13 am - September 9, 2008
These folks who “demand answers” have no qualms with “I don’t recall” repeated over and over as a valid legal defense. Nor do they have a problem with “It depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is”.
Comment by ThatGayConservative — September 9, 2008 @ 2:15 am - September 9, 2008
If LGP isn’t a spot-on parody of a slogan-spouting liberal douche, then … damn… just d-a-a-a-a-a-m-n.
Comment by V the K — September 9, 2008 @ 7:02 am - September 9, 2008
LOL. I don’t recall:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIgbJSrIvWc
Presidential Definition Fun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W28CQQsH9S8
“Planted” was an allusion to sowing seeds. Seeds of terrorism. Not literally placing terrorists in Iraq. Oof. You have to explain everything to you guys.
Honestly, I think the “left” is far better at asking questions and criticizing our side (most of us are WAY PISSED at Reid and Pelosi for not being tough enough). Since the ascension of Palin I have heard/seen no real critical dissection from the right about her record. Only that she is a saviour sent directly from (The Assembly of) God! Come on kids. PAAALEASE!
Comment by Liberal Gay Patriot (Liberals Love America - the REAL America) — September 9, 2008 @ 7:20 am - September 9, 2008
The Constitution maintains there is no religious test.
Why do you hate the Constitution?
Comment by Vince P — September 9, 2008 @ 7:23 am - September 9, 2008
So, where are the Democrats asking “tough questions” about Charlie Rangel’s tax evasion, four rent-controlled apartments, and taxpayer-provided luxury car? What Democrats are asking tough questions about John Murtha’s earmarks for companies that don’t exist, or his slandering of American soldiers? Why do we know more about Bristol Palin’s relationship with Levi Johnston than we know about Barack Obama’s relationship with Bill Ayers? Why aren’t Democrats asking tough questions about Chris Dodd’s sweetheart mortgage deal with Countrywide? Why aren’t Democrats asking tough questions about Ted Strickland or Maria Cantwell keeping child molesters on their staffs? Why aren’t Democrats asking tough questions about the three-quarters-of-a-billion dollars in earmarks Barack Obama put into the budget, including payoffs to his wife’s hospital and the ‘community organizer’ groups that advanced him in politics?
(No, I don’t really expect Liberal Gay Parody to answer any of these.)
Comment by V the K — September 9, 2008 @ 8:37 am - September 9, 2008
I guess Liberal Gay Parody is one of those lefties who is insinuating that there is no difference between Palin’s church and Obama’s. Let me explain the difference:
Palin’s Church: God Bless America!
Obama’s “Church”: Gaw Damn America!
Of course, you have to actually love America before you can see how the two are not equivalent.
Comment by V the K — September 9, 2008 @ 8:39 am - September 9, 2008
To bad LGP has forgotten that Carter was the one who initially setup funding for the Afghan mujjahdin.
So what does that do to the narrative?
Comment by Keith_Indy — September 9, 2008 @ 11:12 am - September 9, 2008
28. “Jimmy Carter and his national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, had started assisting the resistance, but with not nearly the same largess or ambition [as Regan and his CIA]. http://www.slate.com/id/2102243/
27. “it was wrong for anyone to have judged Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., without first reading what Wright actually said.” Pastor Larry Kroon, Wasilla Bible Church.
26.You are correct, I am not going to respond to all that. I do have other things to do but the Bill Ayers is a red herring and you know it. Are you suggesting all republicans and independents are pure as the driven snow? Never talked to anyone with a past? Come on now. I suppose you do as republicans rarely question their party deities.
Since you brought it up. Shouldn’t Levi be arrested for rape since he is 18 and Bristol was what, 16 when they temporarily forgot their abstinence only pledge and, well, you know? Isn’t he a sex offender - by law?
25. Why then does the right make god such a big part of their platform then? Why do they hate the constitution, I suppose because the republicans all agree with bush when he called it “just a goddamned piece of paper”.
Comment by Liberal Gay Patriot (Liberals Love America - the REAL America) — September 9, 2008 @ 8:43 pm - September 9, 2008
Okay, I’ve read what Reverend Wright actually said and I’ve concluded he is an America-hating racist bigot, a flaming Marxist who assails “middle classness” as a form of oppression African Americans should reject, as well as a whackjob conspiracy theorist who believes AIDS was created by the government and injected into black babies by Jewish doctors.
And Obama sat in his church for 20 years and donated more than $20,000 to his church.
Now, what are you going to do about it?
Comment by V the K — September 10, 2008 @ 6:26 am - September 10, 2008
Zb is in the tank for Obama, last time I checked.
Which is rather ironic, you know.
Comment by Ymarsakar — September 13, 2008 @ 8:46 pm - September 13, 2008
[...] the success I have enjoyed in this endeavor, then it has been well worth it. As I experienced in St. Paul last month and here Saturday night, this blog has helped me meet other like-minded individuals and become a [...]
Pingback by GayPatriot » My fourth blogiversary — October 8, 2008 @ 4:22 am - October 8, 2008