But the pretend-conservative act is being carried onto a whole new playing field, one that has become wildly influential over the past few years and one that does not stand to be instantly recognized as a fake. That playing field is the blogosphere, which is then used in conjunction with massive e-mailings to “spread the word” (as one e-mailer insisted I do to my readers/e-mail list) to other conservatives.The premise is that a blog is established in order to generate credibility, and then that credibility is used to attack Republicans. In this case, the blog was supposed to be for "concerned citizens" to report sexual predators. Then the smear appears on the blog, and the blog is then passed to the MSM as "news."The concept is the same: the blog or e-mail claims, first, that the said writer has been a conservative for years and that they have “had it with Republicans.” They then point to an issue that conservatives would likely be upset about such as excessive spending, immigration, or the expansion of government. Their supposed rage over the issue has convinced them to either not show up to vote in 2006, or, in order to really show Republicans, vote for the Democrat instead.
The blogs and e-mails are convincing in their wording and could incite the sort of reaction that occurred following the Harriet Miers nomination to the Supreme Court. Of course, any liberal could read Free Republic and find out what’s irritating conservatives this week, grab a handful of phrases, and toss it on their “I’m a conservative but voting for a Democratic because of (insert issue here)” blog. After tossing in a few posts about the evils of Hillary Clinton and abortion, the blog is now being run by a bona-fide “conservative.” A few e-mails and link connections later, the message of conservatives voting against Republicans is spread.
-PJ
Look how many of those are on FR! "I'm going to vote for Hillary and teach that dirty GOP a lesson!" How many times have we heard that?