As Skip noted in his post on the subject, GraniteGrok, along with AnkleBitingPundits launched our new radio program, Meet the New Press. What was amazing was that despite all the problems with making the phone connection, our two guests managed to join us- and we’re sure glad they did.
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Our first was Jon Henke. the founder of and a blogger at QandO.net as well as the Inactivist blog and the Neolibertarian Network. He was recently hired as the New Media Coordinator and fulltime blogger for the George Allen Senate campaign. What I found most interesting about Jon’s visit on the program was the fact that he was hired as the Allen campaign’s "New Media Coordinator" in reaction to the blowback from now infamous "macacah" remark made by Allen during a campaign event. Jon’s job is to spread the truth about the Senator and to respond to and counter the never ending smear attacks that figure prominently in politics. While this has been the S.O.P. of politics since the dawn of time, the battle in cyberspace is something new. While the blogosphere is but just one piece of a campaign and will probably never fully replace traditional politicking, Jon proves that it is an important part. The fact that nearly every modern, serious campaign has some type of new media or internet coordinator speaks for itself.
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Our second guest braving the technical difficulty gauntlet was columnist W. James Antle III. Antle is a senior editor for Enter Stage Right and a columnist for OpinioNet, American Daily, Intellectual Conservative, Mens’ News Daily, The Reality Check, WEBCommentary.com and The Patriotist in addition to The American Partisan.
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Our discussion centered around his September article for the The American Conservative– "Purpose Driven Right" in which he investigates the new generation of evangelicals and whether there might be some shift away from their strong support for the Republican party. Bottom line: They probably won’t swing to the arms of the Dems, but they might stay home on voting day without much to motivate the vote. From James’s piece:
a vocal minority has persisted in arguing that the GOP, as the party of the rich, isn’t the best vehicle for a Christian political witness. “There are 2,000 Bible verses that deal with caring for the poor,” says Balmer. “Jesus never mentioned abortion.”.The outcome of this debate may hinge on younger evangelicals, who have grown up in an era when the Religious Right was a fact of political life rather than a new innovation. “Some are less embedded in the subculture and will be less likely to hear the political cues,” says Laura Olson, a Clemson University political science professor who has studied the evolution of evangelical political involvement. “They will be no less committed to pro-family issues, but they’ll say, ‘Let’s talk about poverty, hunger, and the environment.’” Olson points out that even prominent liberal evangelicals—such leaders as Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo—oppose abortion and hold orthodox views about homosexuality..Jessica Echard, executive director of Eagle Forum, is a young Christian conservative who believes the social issues will remain paramount. “I don’t see the evangelical base energized by these new issues,” she says. “They care about babies, marriage, and what their children see on TV.”Some changes may be inevitable, however. “As the number of evangelicals has grown, they have become more like the society around them,” says Olson. “That will lead to a diversity of opinion on a lot of issues.” Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute, agrees that on many issues “evangelicals are in line with the rest of mainstream America.” Yet Brown doesn’t foresee a real partisan shift among evangelical voters. “People vote based on values and comfort level,” he says. “There’s no evidence evangelicals are losing that comfort level with the Republicans just over the environment.”
A very interesting piece indeed. James was a great radio guest, too. Click here to read the whole thing.
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The plan for Meet the New Press is to continue bringing a variety of guests from all corners of the blogosphere every Saturday. We’ll be making segments available for download as soon as we finish setting up for it.
