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"The Left owns the Internet"
RedState ^ | November 30, 2008 | bs

Posted on 11/30/2008 2:51:45 PM PST by St. Louis Conservative

A number of interesting observations have percolated throughout the Interweb in the aftermath of the 2008 election - arguments about the "youth vote", the "center-right versus center-left," pushing aside social conservative issues, etc. But one of the most thought-provoking topics receiving attention is the issue of the presence (or lack thereof) of the Right in the online "Web 2.0" universe. As a technology geek by trade, this topic is near and dear to my heart.

Much has been made of the aforementioned "youth vote" in the post-election analysis, and within that discussion are implications that the youth were energized by the online presence of the Obama campaign. Tools such as YouTube, Twitter, Friendfeed, numerous blog sites, SMS, etc. were used to not only educate, but to "activate." A huge portion of Obama's fundraising was done via the web - small donations that eventually added up to huge numbers (please, let's not get into the issue of overseas donations, etc. - that's really not the point). These tools were used to empower activism, through GOTV-type projects, state-by-state campaign events, as well as fundraising. I am not 100% convinced that there is an obvious correlation between the high percentage of the 18-29 crowd that voted for BHO and his online presence...since youth are already steeped in online culture, and youth seem to lean left to start with, it is difficult to assign a direct cause/effect relationship proving that Obama's leverage of technology led to his success with that demographic. But it certainly didn't hurt.

(Excerpt) Read more at redstate.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: activism; bho2008; internet; netroots; newmedia; rightroots; theleft; youthvote
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1 posted on 11/30/2008 2:51:46 PM PST by St. Louis Conservative
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To: St. Louis Conservative
T don't think so Tim...


2 posted on 11/30/2008 2:54:35 PM PST by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country! What else needs said?)
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To: St. Louis Conservative

Well considering Al Gore invented it I wouldn’t be surprised the left owned the Internet :0)


3 posted on 11/30/2008 2:54:40 PM PST by MissEdie
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To: St. Louis Conservative

If that were true there’d be no Internet.


4 posted on 11/30/2008 2:56:33 PM PST by onedoug
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To: St. Louis Conservative

well it was invented by Algore.


5 posted on 11/30/2008 2:57:05 PM PST by Vaquero ( "an armed society is a polite society" Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: St. Louis Conservative
Of course.

"The almighty Goracle said, "Let there be bandwidth." And it was good at 10 Mbit/s."
6 posted on 11/30/2008 2:57:39 PM PST by randomhero97 ("First you want to kill me, now you want to kiss me. Blow!" - Ash)
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To: St. Louis Conservative
"The Left [wants to] owns the Internet"

Ain't gonna' happen any time soon.

7 posted on 11/30/2008 2:59:32 PM PST by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
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To: randomhero97

LOL


8 posted on 11/30/2008 3:00:04 PM PST by exnavy (in God we trust)
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To: St. Louis Conservative

He’s young, it’s cool and hip to be different, and white girls think he’s hot.

What’s not for a college co-ed to like?


9 posted on 11/30/2008 3:00:13 PM PST by Old Sarge (For the first time in my life, I am ashamed to be an American)
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To: St. Louis Conservative
“The web is without boundaries so it is without focus”

Remember that. The web isn't the future of conservatism until conservatism reaches people everywhere in the traditional mediums.

For example. You could set up a table in front of any local Wal Mart and ask: Have you ever read Red State? Or Politico? Or FR? Heard of Heritage Foundation? Cato Institute?
Then ask if they have read the local paper, Newsweek, Time etc. Have they heard of Greenpeace, NOW, Global Warming?

The Internet is a great tool if you already have people focused. The Swiftboat effort is a great example of that.

10 posted on 11/30/2008 3:01:53 PM PST by IrishCatholic (No local communist or socialist party chapter? Join the Democrats, it's the same thing.)
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To: St. Louis Conservative
One big reason the left is doing better on the net is that their leaders embrace the the left bloggers. They post on their web sites and go to their events. I do not see the high level of cooperation on the right side. Without that there will not be enough excitement or energy to compete with them.
11 posted on 11/30/2008 3:07:07 PM PST by Anti-Bubba182
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To: onedoug
***If that were true there’d be no Internet.***

You got it.

The left owns the MSM, the internet and talk radio are conservative venues.

The only reasons the left SEEMS to get more hits are:

1) We work for a living, and so have less time for posting and hits.

2) And, most importantly, we must come up with THOUGHTFUL posts with NO profanity, misspellings or bad grammar. (All of which take time.)

;^)

12 posted on 11/30/2008 3:07:16 PM PST by Mrs.Z ("...you're a Democrat. You're expected to complain and offer no solutions." Denny Crane)
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To: St. Louis Conservative
The Left Owns the Internet?

Naw! They wish they owned the internet.

The internet is owned by no one, and thats the way it will survive.

If it was owned by anyone, it would not be the internet.

But the the left always were a little stupid, when it comes to this sort of thing.

The only thing the left owns is the shirts on their backs, and a few affirmative action mortgages. Thats why they have to CLAIM they own something.

13 posted on 11/30/2008 3:07:37 PM PST by Candor7 (Fascism? All it takes is for good men to say nothing, ( member NRA)
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To: St. Louis Conservative

It is true the FR and conservative sites dominate internet news and discussion sites, but the left dominates with Web 2.0 tools, such as twitter, facebook etc.

We really need to begin and outreach in that arena, and it would be very easy to do so here on FR by adding links to those sites so we can easily bookmark articles, attract interest to conservative ideals etc. through reading.


14 posted on 11/30/2008 3:12:13 PM PST by rwfromkansas ("Carve your name on hearts, not marble." - C.H. Spurgeon)
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To: St. Louis Conservative; All

It is true the FR and conservative sites dominate internet news and discussion sites, but the left dominates with Web 2.0 tools, such as twitter, facebook etc.

We really need to begin and outreach in that arena, and it would be very easy to do so here on FR by adding links to those sites so we can easily bookmark articles, attract interest to conservative ideals etc. through reading.

I forgot to add that frankly, this would be a good way to reach others....if we did it. FR is great, but talking amongst ourselves and energizing the base doesn’t win converts.


15 posted on 11/30/2008 3:13:02 PM PST by rwfromkansas ("Carve your name on hearts, not marble." - C.H. Spurgeon)
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To: rwfromkansas

There is an FR page on Facebook.


16 posted on 11/30/2008 3:13:35 PM PST by Clemenza (Red is the Color of Virility, Blue is the Color of Impotence)
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To: St. Louis Conservative

Yes, I guess so, Lan Lamphere’s website was crushed yesterday- so he scrapped it.


17 posted on 11/30/2008 3:15:53 PM PST by orchestra
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To: Clemenza

That’s good news. Did not know that.


18 posted on 11/30/2008 3:18:32 PM PST by rwfromkansas ("Carve your name on hearts, not marble." - C.H. Spurgeon)
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To: Clemenza
If MySpace were a country (judging the population by # of members...it would be the 5th largest nation in the world.
Somehow, I still never managed to find anything interesting there...go figure.
19 posted on 11/30/2008 3:24:00 PM PST by 45semi (I find stinky B.O. really really offensive...)
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To: St. Louis Conservative

Also consider Liberal search engines (Yahoo! and Google) omit results from Conservatives via their own filters.

The Media has a full-court press for Liberalism, speech codes and an appeasing Euro-Socialist agenda of garbage.

Fairness? Only when it applies to talk radio.
Equality? Only when taking white, male positions
Freedom? Only when applied to the freedom to only cover negative stories about conservatives and the choice to only cover good points about Liberals

The Liberal is one huge oxymoron.


20 posted on 11/30/2008 3:25:33 PM PST by wac3rd (Conservatives are not always Republicans...and vice-versa.)
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