Day: December 1, 2008

monoblogue turns three

Yes, today begins the fourth year of my website. I’ve had a lot of fun putting this website together the first three years and instead of my normal retrospective and goals post, I decided to make it a little bit more hyperbolic and tongue-in-cheek this time around. So I hope you enjoy this look at…

Great Moments In monoblogue History

December 1, 2005 – The first public post I made. It wasn’t a political post but instead I talked about getting a shirt I waited 38 years for. 1,254 posts later I’m still trying to perfect my writing skills.

April 6, 2006 – I begin the Shorebird of the Week series of posts with the selection of pitcher Josh Potter. Through 2008, I had honored 63 Shorebird players with the distinction, which has become a Thursday night tradition during the season. In 2009 I hope to establish the SotW Hall of Fame page, and this became a step closer when the Orioles recently added four former SotW players to their 40-man roster.

April 7, 2006 – I begin tracking my readership with the Site Meter program. First full week’s readership: 229. I’ve grown and lost numerous times since.

April 25, 2006 – This was the first of my semi-annual “market basket” series, which compares local grocery store prices. Originally it was intended to track the impact of recently-passed state laws but still serves as a case study of the effects of inflation and other supply factors on our food bill.

May 8, 2006 – The Ten Questions interview series is introduced. While its original intent was to question political candidates about what they would do if elected, the series has more recently branched out to nationally-known political figures.

June 11, 2006 – The date I was accepted into the Maryland Bloggers Alliance as their seventh member and first on the Eastern Shore. There’s now nearly fifty members in the MBA.

October 23, 2006 – My first national recognition. Check out the sidebar of this msnbc.com article about Michael Steele’s Senate bid. (The link still works, too.) It’s interesting to note that most of these sites are still around, but some have faded away since that time just two years ago. I had my own reaction to that news as well.

November 11, 2006 – The day the music lived, at least on my site. The first of what’s become a regular feature (under the revised title, “Weekend of Local Rock”), it showed two bands of the three who played at the local watering hole The Monkey Barrel – Project Sideways and Back Before Dawn. Compared to my subsequent efforts this was fairly rudimentary but it began one feature which makes this site unique.

January 15, 2007 – In an effort to make the commentary here more concept-based and original, I debut my 50 year plan series. The concept extends into the Presidential and Congressional candidate selections for endorsement I undertake later in 2007.

January 28, 2007 – I branch out and create a Myspace site for monoblogue, to show my more personal side.

May 20, 2007 – My first time hosting the Carnival of Maryland with edition number 7. The reason I wanted that particular issue was because I was the seventh member of the Maryland Bloggers Alliance, so it was symbolic in that respect. Since then, I’ve been the host for editions 17, 27, 37, and yesterday 47. (Sense a theme here?)

July 15, 2007 – monoblogue achieves a #1 ranking on the BlogNetNews political influence ratings for the first time. Counting one time I was tied for the top spot I’ve managed to rate #1 eight times in Maryland and twice on Delmarva. As of about a month ago, I’m now the sole blog in Maryland to be ranked in the top 20 each and every week this ranking has been in place.

September 14, 2007 – My very first opportunity at crossposting, as I accepted an invitation to contribute to the Red Maryland website. That day’s post “From retirement to campaign” was my very first contribution to that site. Since then I’ve accepted invitations to crosspost at Pro-Maryland Gazette and That’s Elbert With An E as well, along with another unique opportunity (see September 24, 2008 below.)

September 26, 2007 – I still say this guy would have been a great President. But this was the date I participated in my very first blogger conference call, with other supporters of then-candidate Congressman Duncan Hunter of California. Since then I’ve been fortunate enough to be invited to many others – most recently I participated in one with bloggers who questioned the head of the American Petroleum Institute.

October 5, 2007 – Two words: the Rushalanche.

July 7, 2008 – Picking up the baton of the former Maryland Accountability Project, I introduce the monoblogue Accountability Project, which rates all 188 members of the Maryland General Assembly on their voting records from my conservative point of view. This covers the 2007 regular and special sessions along with the 2008 session. It culminated about 2 months’ worth of research and compilation.

September 24, 2008 – After being invited to do so by the editor, I become the local editor for a new site affiliated with the Red County website. Called Red County Wicomico, this gives me a chance to place my items on a rapidly growing national site. It’s an exciting new horizon for me to take things to the next level.

November 28, 2008 – While the seeds of discord may still be forming, it’s apparent that I’ve now spawned my first anti-monoblogue site; sort of like the Federalists and Anti-Federalists of colonial days. Determined, I press on nonetheless into a fourth year of blogging, where I pledge to place quality of writing over quantity of posting.

You know I had a lot of fun traveling down memory lane to compile this and probably could have brought up a whole lot of other moments. But this is a pretty good primer on what I’ve accomplished in terms of making an impact in the blogging world.

If you’re sharp-eyed you’ll notice that I set this post to the exact same time that my original post made it to the blogosphere. While I’m proud of what I’ve done here so far, I always strive to improve and it’s become apparent to me that what I’ve done in the past at once means a lot yet means nothing at all. I’ve built this up fairly well but I have a long way to go to achieve the goals I’ve set for myself with this site – perhaps I’ll never quite make the pinnacle I seek but why set expectations too low?

People have told me I’m a fairly talented writer (even if backhandedly); however there always seems to be a “but…” attached to it. To make a pun out of events in my personal life, over the last three years I’ve gotten rid of a lot of my butt so this year I want to eliminate that last “but” from the description of my writing. It’s not necessarily going to happen in this forum but here is where I work to become a more perfect writer, so my aim is to achieve many of these desired results by the end of year number four.

Comment on commentary

Recently I read commentary from Alex Rosenwald from the NetRightNation blog, part of which I’ll detail below:

When Republicans win, the Democrats launch holy war. There is no insult, attack or underhanded assault that could possibly be considered out of bounds. But when the Democrats and liberals win, both parties are supposed to join hands and sing kumbayah. Sure, the Democrats want to bury the hatchet—right in the Republicans’ backs. This is a prescription for disaster and a generation of irrelevance. Mr. Obama should be challenged and fought every step of the way.

There are countless examples of bi-partisan bills that have failed. The Financial Bailout of 2008, supported by Senators McCain and Obama, has only increased the national debt and put the Country in a more challenging downward spiral. Others include: Campaign Finance “Reform”, which banned soft money. There is No Child Left Behind, which spends excessive federal money on a program that has produced miserably for helping improve the quality of education in America. And then, there is “The Prescription Drug Benefit”, notably the largest expansion of the welfare state since the LBJ Years–to name a few of the bi-partisan “achievements” in Washington.

Now, let’s go back to the bedrock question: is the GOP still relevant? Well, if it continues to support failed, liberal policies, it will become little more than a footnote in history for having failed to offer a compelling conservative alternative to the Big Government socialism engineering.

If two people are doing the same job, one is redundant. And it’s usually the copycat who evanesces. So the Republicans have taken a hit. Now, they have to decide whether they want to roll over and play dead, or hit back. Right now, they seem to be reaching for the embalming fluid.

For most of my adult life I’ve been a card-carrying member of the Republican Party, and for the better part of ten years I’ve represented anywhere from a few square-block precinct to an entire county in the GOP apparatus. Since I’ve been involved, I’ve seen the items Rosenwald mentions come to pass and take the party and country farther and farther from its conservative roots, usually with the tacit approval of those who run the party at the state and national level. One example I’m not fond of is the Ohio Republican Party attempting to avoid primary fights and backing more moderate candidates they believed were more “electable.” In 2006 that strategy caused the state GOP to pretty much go “splat” as they lost the Governor’s chair and other statewide offices.

To use a more recent example, the conservative candidate here in the First Congressional District lost a close election to a more “moderate” candidate who almost totally eschewed the Democrat party label (but not their money.) Thus, many on the other side have argued that Andy Harris was “too conservative” for the district.

My contention though is that in this election at least 50 percent voted for a candidate who favored lower taxes and less government – two linchpins of conservative thought. Others voted for the more centrist candidate because of the perceived abrasiveness of the conservative Harris, perhaps not knowing fully the principles of Frank Kratovil but instead believing his line about being an “independent” candidate. I also happen to believe that had Wayne Gilchrest won the GOP primary Frank Kratovil would have won by running as a more conservative Washington outsider.

Regardless, First District voters may end up being somewhat surprised by what their centrist candidate actually votes for in Washington.

Republicans have tended to run away from the principles that won election for Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich because of a perception (created in part by the mainstream media) that to win and get things done they needed to be “bipartisan.” In truth, that’s how George W. Bush won in 2000, by pledging a “new tone” and working with Democrats to accomplish what he termed “compassionate conservatism.” While he did get the most conservative portion of his agenda passed (the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts), many of the domestic issues Bush is known for are what Rosenwald complains about in his piece. Unfortunately, Republicans who were somewhat apprehensive about the increased size of government programs and the budget were still loathe to cross their party’s President – which also explains in part why the Gingrich-led Congresses of 1995-2000 were more successful in advancing conservative principles than the later GOP-controlled bodies of 2001-2006.

Rosenwald is right in thinking our party stands at a crossroads. For at least the next two years, the only Republican body of significance may be the House of Representatives (depending on how the runoff election today tomorrow in Georgia turns out.) Unfortunately, the GOP won’t have a lot of control but perhaps they can take some pages out of the Democrats’ book and become obstructionists, hold hearings just to embarrass the Obama Administration – in general do their job at being the opposition.

If we stick to principles, we have the better ideas for the direction our nation should take.

Interestingly, I’m working with Rosenwald on a future post – the details will be out soon.