True North
By Mitch Berg
Today’s the big debut:
About the time this article publishes, we’ll be giving True North its big sendoff at the State Fair (tune in on AM1280 The Patriot).
Some people have asked – “why another conservative blog?” (Others, rather than asking, have tried to go all Chloe on us. Really, guys – less drama, please?)
But as the Democrats try to wheedle the state into holding a special session to repair the bridge (and increase Local Government Aid and put a state trooper at every intersection and raise all of southern Minnesota twelve feet and increase education funding and built a light-retaining wall around Nicollet Island and…) and trucks full of Hollywood money are rumbling up I90 to Al Franken’s office and wannabe thugboyz and riotgrrls are measuring manhole covers in Saint Paul for next year’s convention and plutocrats pour money into buying a left-leaning alternative media presence in this state, it’s time for us – the state’s center-right alternative media – to step things up.
True North is just another blog, in a sense. It’s true.
It’s also going to be the online equivalent of what Keegans is for the non-partisan Minnesota Organization of Bloggers; a place to get together; to talk; to organize things.
It’s not an organ of the state GOP. Far from it. While probably 95% of the votes I’ve cast since age 20 have gone to Republicans (and that is, naturally, a conservative estimate), it’s because the GOP is the only party that even pays lip service to the principles I care about; in many other ways, the State GOP and some of the Congressional District party organizations are as much the problem as they are the solution.
No. True North is rigorously independent of all parties. It is allied purely to first principles: from the Manifesto…:
- Liberty: lower taxes, less (and more sensible) regulation, and a focus on freedom, whether economic, intellectual or political.
- Prosperity: the promotion of the freedom of the market to bring the most opportunity to the most people, and the promotion of merit that drives this prosperity.
- Security: the defense of this nation from enemies abroad, the protection of its citizens from crime and criminals at home, and the security of our borders.
- Culture: The recognition that America is a melting pot that welcomes newcomers who come with a desire to join in our novel experiment, enjoy freedom, wealth and a brotherhood of common principle, rather than view it as a candy store to be plundered.
- Limited Government: A government that is focusing on whether you’re smoking or eating Big Macs is a government that has too much time, money and power on its hands.
- Family: the belief that government needs to uphold, rather than undercut, the basic building block of all healthy societies, the family.
True North is a center for writing and discussing these principles.
Kind of like every other blog. Yepper.
But it’s also a place to network. To organize. To counter George Soros’ and Laurie David’s millions with the things Minnesota conservatives do have plenty of.
Ideas.
Energy.
Commitment.
Passion for the cause.
This next 14 months are going to be an amazing time. True North seeks to chronicle that time – and, to the extent that a bunch of volunteers in the pajamas sitting behind keyboard in their basements can, to drive that time.
So join us!
September 2nd, 2007 at 1:37 pm
OK, I understand. Good stuff, well said, good luck, and all that. But what I just don’t get is how, without taking a “principled stand” that candidates of one party (say, for example, the GOP) will do a better job of advancing your principles than those of another party. The only way to advance your principles is by helping to elect people who agree with those principles and want to put them into practice. The only way those good people can truly advance your agenda is if they become the majority, which means that even someone who disagrees with some or even all of your principles must be supported, if they are of the “right” party.
Yes, you can do a heck of a good job being “nonpartisan and purely educational,” as the Taxpayers League is, but at some point you need to start putting the education into an actual practicum– “field work”– to get anything done, right? What’s wrong with partisanship, if it gets you where you want to go? What is it you are going to “organize” if not the election of those who can advance “the cause”?
September 2nd, 2007 at 1:48 pm
J.,
I think there’s a little misunderstanding, here.
But what I just don’t get is how, without taking a “principled stand” that candidates of one party (say, for example, the GOP) will do a better job of advancing your principles than those of another party.
I think the gap here is that True North is not non-partisan. We are partisans…for first principles. We are not an organ, official or otherwise, of any political party.
Looking at the roster of contributors, it’s pretty obvious that most of us are Republicans of one form or another, and all of us are conservatives. Most of us are Republicans because we believe in those first principles, and that the GOP (at its best, anyway) best supports them.
Yes, you can do a heck of a good job being “nonpartisan and purely educational,” as the Taxpayers League is, but at some point you need to start putting the education into an actual practicum– “field work”– to get anything done, right? What’s wrong with partisanship, if it gets you where you want to go?
Nothing!
And TN does differ from other blogs in that there’s an emphasis (not yet exercised – I mean, it’s been a day!) on “field work”. Well said.