A few days ago, I mentioned in a sort of offhand post that the conservative Drill Drill Drill campaign is not actually part of some new grassroots movement. My evidence was that it was launched by Newt Gingrich, the House GOP, oil companies, and billionaires, its events are populated by paid staffers, and it is organized to benefit an extraordinarily powerful lobby that has a string of victories under its belt this Congressional session. I didn't think this was a particularly controversial claim, and it's not, but the 'rightosphere' has apparently taken offense, mostly because they are stupid.
Here's one conservative 'grassroots activist', Eric Odom, responding to my claim. |
The CNN story went live just after the site was opened up, and the story was followed by The Next Right, Red State, Politico, Michelle Malkin, HotAir, Washington Examiner, and scores of bloggers. This wave of attention sent more than 60,000 unique visits to our site within 24 hours.
Yesterday I spent hours and hours trying to answer email all day long, and the support we have received has been nothing short of encouraging in every way possible.
Now we have an e-mail list that is well over 10,000 strong, our e-mail RSS subscriber list is about 1,200 strong, and we have a Twitter army that simply has yet to be matched in size.
I'm proud to be a part of this movement, and I'm proud to say that we have had ZERO influence from anyone outside of our homes.
THAT is something very few on the left can claim.
To give you a frame of reference, 10,000 emails is equivalent in size to about 2% of Moveon's list when it first formed in 1998, and Moveon's list was built without help from partisan media (because none existed at the time on the left). Their other numbers are similarly pathetic, and it's just remarkable that it took all that push - from well-funded movement conservative outlets - to get to the shitty numbers shown. I mean, drilling is popular and it will be a useful issue for the right this election season, and this is the best they can do?
What is most stupid is how conservative think tank fellows and GOP consultants can't tell the difference between themselves and grassroots activism that represents 'new' thinking. Actually, what's most stupid is the phrase "we have a Twitter army that simply has yet to be matched in size", but whatever. According to his website, Eric Odom works for a conservative organization called the Sam Adams Alliance, whose CEO is on the board of the Club for Growth. The Sam Adams Alliance is focused on transparency, 'fiscal responsibility', anti-corruption, anti-affirmative action programs, and fighting against eminent domain. The site recommends you read a bunch of books by Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek, as well as a few others attacking the big socialist menace and defending private property. And this is new how exactly?
Aside from the idiocy of Odom and the various GOP consultants and think tank fellows twittering all day, Odom is so stupid he doesn't understand that he works for a conservative movement organization. He's not a grassroots activist just thinking of stuff to do on his own time. This is his job.
I mean, according to their theory, Newt Gingrich and House Republicans did the messaging and organizing work on a campaign, which was funded by billionaires, and used essentially the same playbook the right has used since 1978, but it finally tipped because some GOP junior consultants with blogs signed up for Twitter. Fucking morons. |
