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The Spectacle Blog
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Donna Scala was surprised to find she felt so at home among her fellow attendees at this weekend’s RightOnline conference.
“I’ve never been in a room with this many conservatives before,” Ms. Scala, a Democrat from Beaver Falls, Pa., said after attending the two-day conference sponsored by the Americans For Prosperity foundation.
During Saturday afternoon’s final panel discussion, Ms. Scala drew applause when she stood up to ask a question, which she prefaced by introducing herself as “a Democrat who did not vote for Obama.”
A trio of panelists — Red State’s Erick Erickson, Robert Bluey of the Heritage Foundation and Matt Lewis of AOL’s Politics Daily — had been discussing how conservatives can have influence with Democrats controlling both the White House a majority in Congress. Ms. Scala stood up to say that many of her Democratic friends have been dismayed by the broken promises of the Obama administration.
“I’m talking to Democrats who voted for Obama, but this isn’t the ‘Change’ they voted for,” she said.
In an interview afterwards, Ms. Scala explained that many Democrats in her community are “disappointed, but they’re afraid to speak out, because they’ve always been just Democrats.”
Ms. Scala said she was excited to learn the online technology skills taught during RightOnline seminars. A fan of Fox News and radio talk-show host Glenn Beck, she said that Twitter fit Beck’s advice to “find one thing and focus on it.”
Such moments of discovery are encouraging to RightOnline’s director, Erik Telford.
“Honestly, for me, the highlights [of the conference] are seeing the grassroots activists who come to learn how to start their own blogs, how to use Facebook, Twitter and other online tools,” said Telford, who estimated the total attendance at the Pittsburgh conference as exceeding 700.
Among the speakers at the conference were Michelle Malkin, James Pinkerton, Ed Morrissey of HotAir.com, the Wall Street Journal’s John Fund and Stephen Moore, and Pennsylvania Senate candidate Pat Toomey.
While many older activists were learning New Media technology, there was no shortage of young grassroots conservatives on hand — an encouraging development, said Barbara Espinosa, who traveled from Scottsdale, Ariz., to attend the event.
“If these young bloggers are the future of the news media then we are in for a treat in reading the daily news. The attendees were all age groups involved and active in their community and politics,” Ms. Espinosa wrote on her American Freedom blog.
Ms. Espinosa, a widow, grandmother and native Texan who does not wish to disclose her age, said that the first Republican presidential candidate for whom she voted was Ronald Reagan in 1980.
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More Blog Posts by Robert Stacy McCain
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Alan Broos| 8.15.09 @ 6:52PM
again, again. we've been through all this before. in 1993. And now Clinton's wife is Secstate.
So dreary. In Jan 2011 a Compassionate Rechumplican will be sworn in as Speaker. Then in 2012 a RINO-hack will lose to Obama.
Now we know what reincarnation is: it is living the same meaningless life over and over. and over.
Alan Brooks| 8.15.09 @ 6:56PM
Maybe the GOP could run the RNC for POTUS in '12?
Steele would make a great token. He could out-pablum Colin Powell.
Hilary| 8.15.09 @ 8:51PM
Republicans will stop at nothing in order to realize their sick capitalist utopia. We'll all live in poverty but we'll be so free.
Alan Brooks (not Broos)| 8.15.09 @ 10:47PM
in a Democratic USA we will live in poverty but we can have all the sex we want.
name your poison.
Aaron| 8.16.09 @ 12:12AM
Agreed Alan, Steele would be a good stand in for Bob Dole in '12. Might as well pick up some older politically irrelevant RINO to be his running mate. A Latino would be extra special, a little shout out to the border states.
Hilary... I've literally been around the world and I've seen real poverty. I've been around the entire country, every state with the exception of Hawaii and I have not seen real poverty in the US. Even the poorest in the US have television, cell phones, transportation, access to medical care, food, clothing, shoes and even two meals a day for children in school. NEVER in this country have I seen children digging through heaps of garbage for something to eat like I have in Africa. Socialist Putz.
Alan Brooks| 8.16.09 @ 9:40AM
there might not be such a 'thing' as progress, though-- progress might only be material. China isn't democratic in any way; Russia is a cosa nostra 'anarchist' (to put it optimistically) nation. America has substandard schools; bad government in every state. In fact the rightwing state govts are the worst because though hey tax at a lower rate, the services are worse; schools in Arizona are deplorable.
Progress is only in pure science and gross material, creature comforts. Applied science is so frequently misapplied. Baseness rules.
But whatever goes around comes around. The futurist platitudes I used to promote have come back to haunt me. The future? when? for whom?
Alan Brooks| 8.16.09 @ 9:46AM
PS,
I lived in AZ for a winter, and realized 'name your poison' is probably the succinct description. You gain freedom, you lose something else.
Jaynee Doe| 8.16.09 @ 7:27PM
Ms. Scala may call herself a Democrat, but she obviously is not. Claiming such is a ploy to give her opinion more credibility when in reality, it shows her to be disingenuous. It's extremely annoying when anyone, left or right, tries to manipulate us in this manner, as if we wouldn't notice.
V Davisson| 8.16.09 @ 11:48PM
The trolls are out!
Red Phillips | 8.17.09 @ 7:25AM
Toomey just announced he would have voted for Sotomayor. I saw his speech on C-SPAN, and he got a standing ovation. Why wasn't he booed off the stage? He should have been. This is one of the big problems with movement conservatives. They are too deferential to Republicans.
The conference was way too movement centric. Eric Erickson? John Fund? Stephen Moore? Could you get any more hackish? Where were the dissident conservatives? The C4L types?
First it is probably important for the RightOnline Conference to define what it means to be right. Erick Erickson wouldn't know the right if it bit him on the rear. His Red State banned Ron Paul supporters, and he thinks anyone who talks about the Fed or gold is a "moonbat" or a "tin foil hat" wearer. Well opposing the Fed and supporting sound money is the right. Calling those who do names ain't.
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