I’m about to take a long time off on this space as my wife and I await the birth of our first son. This is notwithstanding the opinions of right-wing manhood experts Matt Walsh and Tucker Carlson. But thank goodness whatever my faults, I don’t take cues from them from how to be a man.
I have a few quick thoughts to share before I bid farewell.
Substack Newsletters and the Return of Thinking
Prior to Matt Drudge' exposing the Washington Post’s decision to kill the Monica Lewinsky story in 1998, the collapse of traditional media and their status as gatekeepers of what people learn had begun, but it picked up pace with Drudge.
Drudge was the talk of the town and in 1998 gave a speech at the National Press Club. In the speech he said, “The Internet is going to save the news business. I -- I envision a -- a future where there'll be 300 million reporters, where anyone from anywhere can report for any reason. It's freedom of -- freedom of participation, absolutely realized.”
In theory, this is great. In practice, this has been problematic, with a huge chunk of these new “reporters” being utterly and completely irresponsible. They spread and resyndicated stories and memes without regard for whether they were true on it. Some are the unwitting dupes of foreign regimes and an increasing number are quite comfortable carrying the water for the likes of Vladmir Putin.
Of course, that’s not where it all started. It started with alternatives to biased mainstream outlets. This would first come in the form of websites like Drudge’s and forums like Free Republic, Democratic Undergroud and the Daily Kos.
These sites would be followed by the blogs, which would be huge towards throughout most of the 2000s.
Most blogs were started and run by individuals. When it came to politics. For most, monetization remain limited to what change could be picked up for Google Ads, Amazon Affiliate links, and the occasional donation link.
I was a moderately successful blogger back in the day, probably the more prominent in my state on the right. The blog world was mostly a small and informal one. There were loosely affiliated blog networks started where there’d be, for example, a blog roll of sites concerned about the border. There’d be blog carnivals for different causes and different sorts of writing. It was a fun time.
Blogs were a mix of one-man operations, group blogs started by friends, and then there was a Red States, a grassroots conservative blog (not yet having driven away every sane and sensible person) You’d have a lot of ideas and opinions shared from so many people with unique styles and takes. The best were fun and winsome.
Yet, that world faded away. There were two things that happened. First was the emergence of big new media companies to manage the blogosphere. At the time, I poo-poohed those who were aghast at the emergence of companies like Pajamas Media. In retrospect, the idea of big media companies paying political bloggers would gut the political blogosphere.
In the interest of of full disclosure, I did write occasionally for PJ Media in it early years and earned a little money doing so. I haven’t written for them in ten years and I don’t think either one of us would have any interest in resuming the relationship. I’m not a good fit for their current iteration and look forward to celebrating ten years of not writing for them thsi May.
Big blogging would challenge some bad blogger habits such as being overly verbose, but I think would also gut a lot of the heart and soul of what made that medium interesting. Look at sites like PJ Media, Townhall, the Daily Wire, the Daily Caller, and the Blaze. When you get past the screaming headlines and loopy conspiracy theories, the sites are essentially the same. You could delete any single one of these sites from the Internet and no one would miss it because they’re essentially interchangeable soulless blobs of opinion.
The one thing you begin to realize is utterly interchangeable they all are.
This was made even worse by social media. The bland, interchangeably soulless garbage being put out by right-wing media began to be structured as pure clickbait to get more likes, shares, and ad revenue to get people to share their stories without even reading them.
It wasn’t just clickbait artists that were spread across social media. It was fake news of all kinds. Millions of Facebook “reporters” were ready to share all kinds of crazy things. Back in the days of blogs, a false story could ride the syndication feed out within hours, but would generally be corrected by most responsible blogs in short order.
However, fake stories travel across Facebook and do not get dialed back. Millions of “reporters” spread demonstrably fake news and are too prideful to admit it. It happens on both sides of the aisle. I’ll never forget one liberal lady who shared a post about horrible Christians leaving a note for a lesbian waitress that they wouldn’t tip her because she was a lesbian. She shared this story but didn’t share the story that showed this was a hoax and this happens so many times. Sharing stories of scandal and evil are great clicks and fun, corrections not so much.
More and more we end up in a house of lies of our own creation where we only see those things that we want to hear that reflect our own biases. I can’t help but wonder if those who avoid news at all costs aren’t better informed than those who plunge themselves into alternate reality on social media.
Where we’ve ended up is a situation where we are awash in information. but most of it is worthless and unprofitable.
I’ve never stepped away from writing about politics totally, but my enthusiasm has waned significantly. The worst thing that could have happened to me was for my dreams of “making it big” in political blogging to come true. Writing for a Salem Media website would be one of the most soulless jobs I could imagine.*
Writing a newsletter on Substack may be one of the best experiences writing I’ve in the last decade. I aim to write one newsletter every week and it’s a displicine, one I’m still working on getting right. Sometimes my ambition exceeds my grasp and the limited time I have to write about politics. I’m still trying to find the goldilocks approach of the “just right” length which may vary from week to week.
As fond as my memories of old-school blogging were, I produced a lot of quantity, but not necessarily quality. Some blog posts had become irrelevant before I hit the publish button.
What I like about writing on substack is that it changes my approach to writing and interacting with topics. If I’ve decided to write about something, I’ll generally avoid talking it about in on social media. “Save it for the newsletter.” A couple times in recent months, I’d planned on writing about something but as I followed the debate online, my own thinking would change. One problem with the social media approach of saying what you think immediately is that there’s a sense in which you feel locked into supporting a position even when new information comes along.
Most of the substack newsletters I’ve read have been thoughtful and well-put together. I think this is particularly true of those with a weekly or bi-weekly schedule. There’s less, ‘Well, I have to say something today.” and more, “I’ve really got something important to say that I’ve been thinking about.”
I’m not going to vouch for every substack newsletter out there. As a company that values free speech and welcomes a variety of perspectives, it is a bit of a mixed bag. However, there are some absolutely superb reads on this site and so many well-thought-out newsletters that really provide insight rather than just constantly spewing outrage. How these newsletters will compete against the ease of clickbaity trash that dominates our discourse is something I don’t know. Regardless, I feel like substack is creating a lot of great space for thoughtful voice.
It’s been an honor to be part of it, and I look forward to resuming as things settle down at the Graham house.
Focus on the Everything
I received an email with a link to an article calling for the lifting of mask mandates for COVID-19 in public schools. Where did the blog post come from? Focus on the Family and the post was written by the organization’s President Jim Daly.
I don’t really have an issue with the blog post itself. I’m sympathetic to the end of school mask mandates. Yet, I can’t help but feel a bit sad because this really doesn’t have anything to do with what Focus on the Family’s mission is supposed to be about. The same can be said of the ACLU’ attempts to sue to keep mask mandates in place in local schools. What do mask mandates have to do with families or civil liberties?
There was a time—-believe it or not—when organizations existed to advocate for specific issues such as guns, abortions, family issues, taxes, etc,. Because the organization was about specific issues, there could often be cross-partisan alliances. There could be people who were involved in a specific issue who were not dedicated to any political party. It’s been perhaps a little more than a decade since I attended a March for Life where the speaker was the leader of Democrats for Life.
This sort of thing is becoming far rarer, more and more political organizations whatever their purported reason for existence, are becoming extensions of Team Red or Team Blue. It’s horrible for our politics and for the issues these groups claim to represent.
There is a value to “staying in your lane” that allows you to advocate for issue being something more than a partisan political football. Sadly, so many organizations have forgotten this.
The Forward Party Makes a Sharpe Decision
Andrew Yang’s Forward Party is making an effort to get on the ballot in the State of New York. New York’s fusion system makes obtaining ballot access a good call even with Yang’s reluctance to seek access until structural reform are in place. The Forward Party has already endorsed a gubernatorial candidate, Larry Sharpe.
It’s the first “Forward” Party endorsement or person who hasn’t leaned pretty far to the left. Sharpe is primarily a member of the Libertarian Party and was one of the contenders for Vice-President in 2020. Sharpe also has the endorsement of Unite New York, which is slightly more right-leaning.
A Zogby poll (which has to be taken with a grain of salt) shows Sharpe with 6% of the vote. Sharpe is one of the better politicians the Libetarian Party has and is genuinely likable. However, Sharpe isn’t going to win. The state is a massively expensive media market that there’s no way he can compete in. However, Sharpe could break into double digits. Given the state’s sharply Democratic bent, Sharpe’s percentage may be the most the interesting thing to watch on Election night in New York State.
Why Good People Don’t Run for Office, Part 956
I noticed a tweet from former RNC Chairman Michael Steele highlighting a clip from his guest hosting on MSNBC’s weekend talk show Ayman and an update on the Mayor of a small town who warned that allowing ice fishing on a like might lead to prostitution. The Mayor, Craig Schubert, resigned.
Steele played it with humor, jokingly taking credit for it on behalf of the Ayman show and issuing a warning to small town mayors and “enemies of ice fishing.”
When I looked into that situation, I found it less than funny. Mayor Schubert explained what happened from his perspective:
City Council workshops are a time for discussing important matters, the sharing of ideas and concerns, as well as one’s knowledge and experience prior to crafting legislation to establish new laws and policies. My comments at Tuesday’s workshop were made out of concern for our community; what could become of unintended consequences of new legislation, based on my prior television news reporting experience. My attempt to inject a bit of dry humor to make a point about this, in the midst of a cold, snowy February, was grossly misunderstood.
I can believe that this was a dumb deadpan joke that didn’t land.
Schubert, who is sixty-five made the decision to quit as his life was changing:
Since the passing of my wife, First Lady Sherri Moyer, I have given considerable thought to the next stage of my life. Retirement is on the near horizon.
Schubert lost his wife less than six months ago before being turned into an international joke. He decided he was going to resign as Mayor nearly two years early. So the international media got the joy of ridiculing an elderly widower out of politics. Wow, what an achievement.
I know very little of Mr. Schubert’s politics. He seems to lean conservatives and made news for suggesting a school board might be guilty of child pornography for a racy assignment that was given out to High Schoolers. That really doesn’t matter.
Schubert is a human being. He was serving in the world of local politics. City and county government (particularly in smaller towns) do work that is necessary but also incredibly tedious. I’ve attended some meetings and as a rule, they are long and dry as Death Valley. Yet, it’s all necessary work. Schubert attempted humor during one of these incredibly tedious and dull meetings and for that gets raked over the coals.
I’d have little sympathy for a member of Congress or even a high-ranking state official. My response would inspired by the 1970s TV show, Super Chicken, “You knew the job was dangerous when you took it.”
When taking on a mostly ceremonial role in a town of 22,000, Craig Schubert didn’t sign up to be abused by press around the world during one of the most difficult years of his life.
Schubert brought a varied and rich history of life experiences and offered himself up to his fellow citizens to serve in m8ncipal government. How many qualified people are going to look at what happened to Schubert and reach a different conclusion about running for office:
The media’s willingness to absolutely savage normal human beings for doing normal human things is how you ended up with strange sociopaths like Donald Trump getting elected to office. Does the media want a government full of nothing but sociopaths and psychopaths? Because that’s what we’re going to end up with.
The incident also should lead local governments to reconsider televising their proceedings. I don’t think Schubert’s quote would have gone as far if it’d just been quoted in print, but it was on camera making it far easier to be included in news stories and spread on social media.
I think there’s definitely a public interest in television Congress and the State legislature. Once you get down to the level of local government, particularly in small towns, the value becomes far more dubious.
As I said, the proceedings are tedious. In most cases, you can get in easily. In fact, when I was attending City Council meetings when I was a teenager, there were so few of us attending, they could ask us by name to leave when going into Executive Session. It’s hard to believe there’s enough people to watching to even justify blocking off time on the public access cable channel for the dull droning of the Council.
At City Council meetings, news reporters will be there, members of the public can attend in person. So no one’s going to get away with anything if cameras are gone. The presence of cameras capturing the entire proceeding is mostly effective for gotcha “journalism” by people who aren’t local and I think it' would make sense to consider doing away with live video. Politicians should be accountable they were elected to represent but they shouldn’t be set up for ridicule and personal destruction by folks living outside their community.
An Odd Admission from the President of the American Conservative Union/Chairman of CPAC:
Matt Schlapp says he (and CPAC) are “no longer Conservatives.” I’ve been saying that for five years so I appreciate the validation.
In the interest of fair advertising, it does seem like he should lead an effort to rename both the American Conservative Union and the Conservative Political Action Conference to suit the fact that they’re inviting all sorts of various nuts. Or better yet, to let someone else take up the banner of actual conservatism for those groups. However, I don’t think Schlapp has the integrity to do that.
With that, I’ll sign off for now, but will return when things have settled down here at the Graham house.
*It’d probably not be as bad as working on Cinema Sins but still…