Redstate

Posted at 11:23am on Jun. 13, 2008 Time for a RedState Reality Check and an Apology

By Erick

Moe was going to put this up under this name. He wrote it. As Editor of the site, however, I think it is my responsibility to take responsibility for this. The offending user has been privately chastised and will be banned if he ever does anything like this again. Thanks to Moe, though, for writing this and his willingness to make the apology — Erick

OK, time for a little reality check.

If you were paying attention last night, you might have noticed that, for some reason only known to God, we got a very strange diary popping up on the site - and by "very strange" I mean "highly disturbing, and we reported it to the relevant authorties."  While we make good faith efforts to keep things down to a dull roar, stuff like this happens in sites where comments and diaries are not screened before they show up. What should not happen is that any of our readers should think that it's a good idea to take obviously disturbed garbage inflicted upon us and repost it on other sites.  That happened last night, which is why I now have to offer an apology on behalf of this site to both Markos Moulitsas and the readers of Daily Kos for the actions of one of our commenters. 

Now, I understand that many people seem to think that there is, or that there needs to be, some sort of Grand Blogospheric Conflict between the Left and the Right sides.  This is nonsensical, particularly when it comes to RedState.  We are not interested.  What we are interested in is political activism; our goal is to further conservative and Republican policies, which does not mean getting involved in single-combat warfare with the Daily Kos.  From our point of view, the only use that Daily Kos has is to serve as a handy Awful Example of what progressives sound like when they think no moderates and/or conservatives are listening.  Other than that, they're frankly irrelevant to what we need to do here.

Now, I understand that they obsess over us - precisely why is a good sociological question, given that we have, what, one-twentieth of their traffic?  One-fortieth?  Heck, let me grin and call it one-hundreth if that's what it takes to move on - and that some of you may find it pleasant to cause them trouble.  If you have to do that - if you absolutely, positively have to do that, which I think that you shouldn't - don't drag it back here to this site.  We don't roll that way.  We also don't feel like giving them either the satisfaction or the validation that rolling that way would give them, so kindly don't involve us in these sorts of games.  Besides, if you really want to tick the Online Left off, there are much simpler, and much more satisfying ways.  Elect Republicans.  Get a conservative agenda passed.  Volunteer for campaigns.  Win.

Liberals purely hate it when we do all of that.

Posted in Bad Specialist Bad | Blogosphere | DailyKos | redstate — Comments (62)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:28pm on May 7, 2008 Winning Isn't Losing

And Politics Ain't Bean Bag

By krempasky

Early in my career, I had the opportunity to work for giants of the conservative movement. First Morton Blackwell, then Richard Viguerie. Both, in their own way, have been absolutely instrumental to the successes conservatives have seen over the past 40 years.

I'm not giving away any state secrets in pointing out that Richard and Morton have very different styles. They're both builders, but when it comes to the art of coalition politics - there's no question in my mind that the advice Morton gives to conservatives (and Republicans) ought to plastered on a lot of walls here at RedState.

15. Don't treat good guys like you treat bad guys.

We get the joke: center-right moderates and conservatives have used each other as punching bags for a long, long time - and we don't presume to settle that particular rift here at RedState. To try would be laughable.

But we DO expect folks to keep your eyes on the prize: stopping the most liberal candidate we've seen in a generation from winning the White House. Make no mistake, Obama isn't "new" or "revolutionary." He's a talented speaker, but he's not a serious leader prepared for dangerous times. This is a guy who called for a worldwide ban on fissile materials, for crying out loud.

More important, when you find yourself getting torqued at the squish who doesn't think campaign finance reform is near-treason or the neanderthal conservative that would rather focus on Terry Schiavo than fixing the immigration problem...take a deep breath. Put down the keyboard. Go get a drink.

So two final requests: stop throwing rocks at folks who ought to be your friends at least some of the time, and if someone calls you a name or beats you up a bit - good grief, grow a thicker skin. Politics ain't beanbag.

Posted in McCain | Miscellanea | Obama | redstate — Comments (60)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:07pm on Jan. 6, 2008 Not Your Ordinary Birthday Diary

By haystack

I'd been trying to come up with something a little different from your ordinary "it's my birthday" type of blog entry. DocJ tells us he's just turned 3 years old. C17Wife (one of my all time Redstate favorites) added that she was over 3 as well. This got me to thinking I'd do a not-so-open thread on the matter...

I'll go first, so please consider how I do this and then do likewise inside this thread...

Posted in Blog Birthday | Blogosphere | redstate — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:12pm on Dec. 11, 2007 Re: RedState Endorsment

By Dan McLaughlin

Personally, I'd be all for us doing an official endorsement, if there was a clear choice for conservatives. As it happens, there's not; there's five candidates who all bring something different to the table, and each has his flaws. It's no wonder that some of the Contributors support some candidates, some support others, and some want a pox on all their houses.

I continue to believe that NR and Hewitt have backed the weakest of the five.

Posted at 8:46am on Oct. 27, 2007 For Those Hard Of Comprehension About "The Policy"

By Martin A. Knight

In response to this guy ...

Is the ban on all mentions of He Who Shall Not Be Named?

Yes. The ban is on all mentions, hints, references, allusions or anything that will give anyone reason to conclude that you "support Ron Paul™". So, using Voldemoort, He Who Must Not Be Named or some other pseudo-clever flippery violates the ban. In other words, you are on thin ice. Lose the sig.

Posted in Archived | moby | redstate | Ron Paul — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Read More »