A Bump On The Road To Unity - some riffs off Steve - Granite Grok

A Bump On The Road To Unity – some riffs off Steve

Unity

Steve’s post brings up a bunch of issues that are well worth your time to read – and as you can tell by the title here, this is a takeoff on it.  He brings up (along with some of my thoughts):

  • Bloggers like us aren’t the problem that former NH GOP Chair Wayne MacDonald believes us to be…

Most political operatives, campaign managers, politicians and El Jefes of the GOP still have little to no clue how to view bloggers even after a decade since the first bloggers started.  Ditto for cooperating with us.  These folks get frustrated, because they quickly find out that not only can they not “use” bloggers, bloggers get extremely annoyed when a dumb attempt is made to actually do so (and make that abundantly clear, which then makes us “the enemy” in their minds because we won’t “go along”).  We may support your issues, and sometimes, we may even be in lockstep in areas, issues, or people important to you , but realize that it is because those things are important to us – not you.  We do a lot of things but mainly we blog and we do a lot of it.  Personally, don’t ask me to do a lot of other things that you think we should be doing; ask how I might be able to help THIS way – not your way or to plug your “need holes”. We may like you as a politician but don’t view us as part of your campaign staff (even if we “make nice” on you often) that you can then believe co-opting might possible.

Jon Henke a few years ago told me what he tells politico type…

…and folks like Wayne MacDonald and Jim Foley should understand – we are like pastors with a flock. We have a message in which we are fully invested, we have a [virtual] building, and we have folks that come to listen (and talk back at times).  You would never ask a pastor to preach something outside of their theology – don’t ask us to blog something that we are not, else, we’ll tell the flock that too.  Along with that, we also point out to our flock, like a good pastor would do, “these things are right – and these are wrong”.  Don’t ask us to turn that “morality” upside down and don’t get your panties in a wad if it is you that we are pointing out as the example.  After all, we are ALL fallen and do wrong things from time to time – but we preach LOUD for one IMPORTANT reason – Politicians can control the lives of all around them and sometimes they need “prodding” to get back on the straight and narrow.  That holds even more true for Republicans than Democrats – after all, we know what the standards are for Rs.  Also note that even if we mention you by name, it isn’t personal until you make it so – don’t be surprised then if we get “amused”; you will find out what has amused us fairly quickly.  I guess that’s what torques off “stiff necked” folks off; unlike pastors, we’re willing to amp up and match the incoming (right Jim Foley?).

Bloggers like us are not a problem simply because we criticize the Party, a Party official, a Republican politician, policy, or legislation.  In most cases, we see a problem (sometimes big problems) and are simply just trying to say “Very Dumb Idea” – consider us the Conservative version of the DEW Line.  Sometimes, folks have listened to the admonitions and positive things have resulted.  Sometimes, like with Jim Foley, shining a flashlight on their fiefdom gets people ticked off.  They don’t like the dirty laundry aired out and then start a bloviating campaign (or like our DES / DoIT project, try to say “not much of a problem” when it really is a much larger problem).  That’s too bad.  Instead of getting all bent out of shape, they ought to be asking “Is this really a problem that has to be fixed – lend a hand”?

  • Bloggers like us have been doing the work of the NH GOP outside of the Party on messaging, commentary, and taking it to the opposition EVERY SINGLE DAY, day in and day out.

We are up to 13,500 posts – how many Pressers has the NH GOP put out?  How often has the NH GOP really taken point on things AND IN DEPTH?  Certainly under Wayne MacDonald’s reign, not much at all.  Nor many notable speeches either.  We are tracked and followed, and yes, there are folks out there that are just dying for us to make a mistake.  We have, and we will again.  I’ve written probably half the posts – I certainly have had the clunkers.  But if you aren’t catching flak, as the saying goes, you ain’t trying.

And yes, (heh!), we can be very trying.  But we also have made a difference with that trying, sometimes a big difference – it pays to go and do something.  ‘Tis better to have tried and failed than to sit on the couch and just grow stupid.

  • Bloggers like us are happy to help if your message, philosophy, and goals match ours.

Be very clear on this – we are not here to amplify your voice – we are allowing you to piggyback on ours. Big Distinction – don’t ask us to reverse that outlook or think you can trick or “mandate” us into doing otherwise – that gets us annoyed (Rule #1 of the blogosphere is don’t annoy the bloggers who do this for fun).

And his main point – why are bloggers out on point instead of the the NH GOP?  And I realized that I have now digressed and gone way long on what was going to be a short post – severely.  So, I will stop here.

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