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Social Media Buzz Cannot Be Safely Disregarded

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Social Media Buzz Cannot Be Safely Disregarded

In today's fast-paced social media world, disengagement is simply not an option. Whether it's an independent author like myself monitoring what people are saying about my eccentric title character, or a large corporation with millions of dollars of profits on the line, there is no excuse to lose track of what's being said about your brand on Facebook, Twitter, or other outlets. In this way, business and marketing are a lot like democratic politics -- a prominent topic on this site. It doesn't matter if the buzz is true or not. Our famous 16th president Abraham Lincoln once said about statesmanship: "A universal feeling, whether well or ill-founded, cannot be safely disregarded." Despite what some satiric Lincoln memes might suggest, Old … [Read more...]

How to Train Your Politician: Conservative Ed Hanks Urges Intentional Voting

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How to Train Your Politician: Conservative Ed Hanks Urges Intentional Voting

On December 20, 2014, I chatted by phone with Ed Hanks about his new book How to Train Your Politician: Intentional Voting as a Path to Tea Party and Constitutional Victory. Hanks, an acquaintance and Jefferson County conservative activist who has been one of Colorado's leading voices for Personhood, graciously shared a Kindle copy of his book for me to read prior our conversation. We talked in the wake of the lame-duck Congress passing the corporatists' dream bill, known as Cromnibus, fueling the fires of populist conservative discontent (including yours truly). A mounting frustration definitely brings a growing interest in the strategy Hanks endorses. Yet what I find most appealing about the book and its author is his historical … [Read more...]

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After Two Centuries: Reflecting on One of History’s Great Men, Abraham Lincoln

Update: Warner Todd Huston has a lengthier, more eloquent, and thoughtful piece up for your perusal. Today is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth. And I'd be remiss not to acknowledge the moment. Ironically, even as we would honor the day of his birth, Lincoln himself would dismiss all inquiries about his youth and upbringing on the Frontier as "the short and simple annals of the poor". A man of rare ambition, savvy, and statesman-like vision, the colorful and quasi-religious mythology about our 16th President misses the mark, but not by as much as it would with most historical actors we can study. Outside the God-man Christ Jesus there have been no perfect men, no flawless or superhuman men, who have lived among us. But … [Read more...]

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On Best Behavior, Patriotic Opposition Rejects Obama-Lincoln Analogy

I don't have time to put down much original thought this morning, so here are three pieces I commend to readers on the Morning After the inauguration. First, the Denver Post's David Harsanyi eloquently asks the rhetorical question many of us have wanted to ask:Do all Americans truly have a yearning to fundamentally "remake" our nation? There must be a subversive minority out there that still believes the United States — even with its imperfections and sporadic recessions — is, in context, still a wildly prosperous and free country worth preserving. Some of you must still believe that politicians are meant to serve rather than be worshiped. And there must be someone out there who considers partisanship a healthy, organic reflection … [Read more...]

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Finding “Salvation” from Government Debt and Hope for GOP Brand

A good decade ago, in a college political science class, we read this essay penned by Harry Jaffa, with a key memorable passage:The end of the Cold War has also brought an end to the remission of the disease of moral relativism that is corroding the life of western civilization. It would certainly seem that the salvation of the West must come, if it is to come, from the United States. The salvation of the United States, if it is to come, must come from the Republican Party. And the salvation of the Republican Party, if it is to come, must come from the conservative movement within it. And the salvation of the conservative movement, if it is to come, must come from the renewal and reaffirmation of the principles of the American Founding, … [Read more...]

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Okay, Barack Obama and I agree on “Team of Rivals” … So What?

For those who believe I have nothing good to say about our President-elect Barack Obama. He at least has some good taste in contemporary historical literature:It so happens that Obama and New York Sen. Clinton share a reverence for "Team of Rivals," Doris Kearns Goodwin's book about how Lincoln brought foes into his fold. Clinton listed it during the campaign as the last book she had read. Obama, clearly a student of Lincoln, spoke of it several times. Now past could be prologue. Obama is considering Clinton for secretary of state or another senior position, meeting John McCain on Monday to see how his Republican presidential rival might help him in the Senate, and sizing up one-time opponents in both parties for potential … [Read more...]

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ObamaFraud and the Ongoing Motivation of the GOP Ground Game

There is a ton to catch up on heading into the election's final week: Palestra has the latest on vote fraud committed by Barack Obama staffers camping out in Ohio. Naysayers repeat the mantra that this fraud can't possibly affect the election, because it's on such a small scale. Focused so intently on potential direct impacts, they miss the point. The ever expanding, yet unknowable, scale of voter registration fraud has been part of feeding a public perception. Based on what we know about human nature and behavior, it will have some effect - how so, it's too hard to say. To further understand the concern, think instead about what this says: the bare minimum of electronic controls to cover his online donations, allowing for myriad kinds … [Read more...]

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Slow Joe Biden, the Gaffe-Making Gift that Just Keeps On Giving

One month ago, when we learned Barack Obama had picked someone even more gaffe-prone than himself to be his running mate, I said: Let Joe Biden speak for himself! Last week the 3rd-most liberal U.S. Senator Biden basically announced his intention to lose western Pennsylvania by saying "no coal plants here in America": Then yesterday, the self-professed high-IQ Joe Biden declared his monumental historical illiteracy to Katie Couric: Jessie Walker on Reason.com had the best retort:And if you owned an experimental TV set in 1929, you would have seen him. And you would have said to yourself, "Who is that guy? What happened to President Hoover?" Maybe the next thing we'll learn is that Abraham Lincoln telephoned Ulysses S. … [Read more...]

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1861 Was Not 1776: An Essay

Update: An astute observer has corrected a factual mistake. James Madison wrote "much of" - not "most of" - the Federalist. Alexander Hamilton wrote more, though Madison wrote many of the key essays that frame the meaning of Union. My faux pas. The following is adapted and expanded from an email listserv essay I wrote recently, inspired initially in response to the following phrase someone had written: "The American Republic created by the founding fathers was destroyed by the civil war...." Here is my argument why libertarians should think long and hard before embracing a defense of the Confederate cause: Quite simply, the noble libertarian impulse to champion resistance to government encroachment on people's freedoms has led many … [Read more...]