Most conservative bloggers are regular people that believe in a greater cause than themselves. I see other conservative bloggers not as competition, but teammates in the fight to restore sanity. One of my favorite teammates in this fight, is Matt Ross. Here is a recent interview I did with Matt:TM-Why did you decide to get involved in political blogging?
MR-I got into blogging almost by accident. For a lot of 2007 and 2008, I was posting on several Conservative forums. One of them, in particular, was small, but the topics and debate were great. Then, it was invaded by liberal trolls. The admins there were no help at all, and it became impossible to carry on any kind of debate or discussion without near continuous distraction. As time wore on, more and more people simply quit. I started the Conservative Hideout as a forum. My idea was to have a forum for Conservatives only, and trolls would be banned. In fact, the forum is still there. It isn't really used, other than some sections used by the contributors.
Around the same time Snarky Basterd, who is one of our contributors, had started Feed Your ADHD. I've known Snarky for years, so I decided to start a blog on my site while the forum grew. The rest, as they say, is history.
TM-What role do you see the internet playing in the future of political discourse?
MR-The Internet has changed the political and media paradigms. With so much information available, and with so many people able to state their ideas, and communicate, the traditional parties and media have found themselves at a disadvantage. We can organize money bombs for candidates. We can expose corruption, lies, and statements that the administration would rather us not know. That, and we're often the first to publish stories. Just think about it, would we know about all the "gems" that are in ObamaCare if it weren't for the Internet? Would anyone know about ClimateGate? What about Van Jones, Kevin Jennings, Cass Sunstein, Mark Lloyd, and the other czars? Without the Internet, we'd know little to nothing about any of these.
Without the internet, or talk radio, we would only have the MSM to rely upon for information. I shudder to think about American in that scenario.
TM-Why do you believe American Exceptionalism is important?
MR-As for "American Exceptionalism," it is our system of government that is truly exceptional. Most Americans are a collection of the descendants of people Europe didn't want, and the descendants of slaves. And in this system of limited government and personal liberty, look at what we have built! It is proof positive that a people that are free to pursue their own interests, with limited interference from the government, can,and will achieve awesome things.
It isn't the American people that the left is necessarily attacking, it is the IDEA of America. America is more than a place on the map, it is a set of ideas: That people can achieve no matter their beginnings. That we own ourselves, and our labor. That individual freedom trumps the state. That a free people can create and build incredible things. That you really can achieve if you set out to do so. That limited government actually works. This runs counter to the "progressive" view of humanity, so the ideas are under attack.
TM-Is there an area that conservatives could have success in convincing the left?
MR-I doubt that we can impact the left at all. I did a post on the Soviet psychological programs run against the west. It featured a video from the highest level KGB officer ever to defect. He discussed a process of discouragement that the Soviets would use against another nation. The end goal was to have a population that is so culturally confused and discouraged, that they would deny reality no matter how much evidence was presented to them. That sounds rather familiar, doesn't it?
The Soviets wrote or created much of the Vietnam propaganda in the 60's. They helped fund the "no nukes" protests in the 80's. All the while, they helped to create what is now our political left. They are so thoroughly brainwashed, that they cannot be convinced of anything. That, and they use the Alinsky method to silence any dissent. They don't want to talk, they want US to stop talking.
TM-If you could change one thing about our government, what would it be and why?
MR-If I could only change one thing about government (and trust me, I have quite the laundry list for changing government), it would be upholding the 10th Amendment. That would be the most significant single blow to federal power that I can think of. If the states could assert their authority under the Constitution, much of the "progressive" agenda could be stopped cold.
TM-Tell us about Conservative Hideout 2.0 and some of the contributors.
MR-My "vision" for the CH 2.0 is to be a site much like Redstate. I'd like it to be a site that people would visit it simply to see what we were talking about on a daily basis. I also wanted to assemble a team of unknown bloggers that bring their own experiences to the table. No known personalities or pundits, just regular people.
We have a pretty diverse group of contributors. We started with contributors by accident as well. I took a business trip last October, and I asked Don and Snarky to post some stuff while I was gone. It worked out so well, that we kept that model.
Snarky Basterd is the master of Snark (he's also the "voice" of the Oil Spill). Read his stuff, and you'll know why. His personal mission is to use Alinsky's rule # 5 against the left. It works.
Don writes about a variety of issues, and debate him at your own risk.
Ken writes from the heart. His passion, and sometimes his anger, shows in his posts. He is also a very capable debater, as I recently found.
AG comes from an interesting perspective, as he is of Cuban descent. He also gets into issues deeply.
Jackie writes about topics that are sometimes overlooked by other bloggers. This is great, as we often get caught up in the big "story of the now."
John Carey is a great writer that can delve deeply into issues. He probably writes more like me than any of the other contributors.
A Conservative Teacher is different in that he does not interact, but he is a source of many education related posts.
Our newest contributor, Manhattan Infidel, is a humor blogger that regularly makes coffee come out of my nose. That hurts, by the way.
We're always looking for new blogs to exchange links, and for contributors, so if you're interested, look us up.
I would just like to add, I am a big fan of Conservative Hideout 2.0. They have a collection of outstanding bloggers who approach issues from a lot of angles. If Matt were the only blogger on that site, it would one of my favorite reads. However, with the team he has assembled; it sets the standard for what a conservative group blog should be.
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