Why You Should be Following Kurt Schlichter on Twitter

What? You’re not on Twitter? Seriously? If you are conservative and you use the web to find political news and opinion, you are missing out on a valuable (though potentially distracting) resource if you are not using Twitter. If you are not already a part of it, go do it now. Go to Twitter.com and register. Then come back. Note that you are limited to 140 characters on Twitter updates; just accept it and move on.

Used intelligently, Twitter is a very valuable tool, with one caveat. Though I know that different people utilize Twitter in very different ways, there are two things about Twitter than I find to be particularly worthwhile, one on the news side and one on the politics/opinion side.

If you sit in front of a computer all day like I do, Twitter will ensure that you know about any news event almost the very moment it happens. This instant “heads up” has proven to be true through virtually every news story of the past year. Apparently there is an equation, I could call it Waterson’s Law if I was feeling self-congratulatory, that states that if you follow a certain number of people on Twitter then at any given instant someone that you “follow” will be sitting at home watching cable news or listening to talk radio, eager to be the first person to pass along some breaking story. It’s better than keeping a page open on Drudge Report, though you can follow Drudge Report on Twitter as well!

Beyond those breaking news updates, Twitter is really good for political news and opinion. Some people seem to love to sit around coming up with snarky or downright funny thoughts (@ExJon) and some people are more likely to pass along good political articles, often at a surprisingly prolific rate (@Cubachi).

As far as the caveat that I mentioned earlier, I started thinking about something after reading a largely unrelated blog post over at Riehl World View. In that post, Dan was making a point about Twitter not scaling well and the implication that those of us on the right may be too dependent on it heading into the fall, but it made me think about something else and it is the one warning that I would offer about Twitter: do not let it make you a passive news gatherer.

I have been one of those web junkies since before Drudge broke the Lewinsky scandal. Heck, I remember in 1994 when the only good web site was Adam Curry’s MTV.Com . In fact, I cut my teeth arguing and reading on the Usenet in groups like talk.politics or talk.politics.guns back a few years before the web ever put a user friendly face on the internet. But recently I realized that I had gotten a little too dependent on Twitter for my news and political opinion. I have subsequently made a conscious effort to go out and find my own news again rather than allowing myself to be satisfied with what others’ pass along. Do not forget to continue to go to the places that you used to check before Twitter, otherwise you risk being too passive in your news and opinion trolling.

Finally, most of you are wondering how in the world you got this far into this post without finding out who the heck Kurt Schlichter is. Kurt is a guy that I follow on Twitter. His short bio states:

Writer (Big Hollywood, et al), ex-comic, Desert Storm/OEF (Kosovo) veteran, and the only right wing civil trial lawyer in LA.

Kurt seems like a stand up guy and a patriot.

For the last couple of weeks I have been thinking about writing a blog post exhorting conservatives to use Twitter, but it had not really come together until Kurt went off on a funny-but-true rant with a series of twitter updates about what it means to be a conservative. I wanted to pass along some of his observations while encouraging conservatives to use Twitter.

Here are some of his spot on [and unaltered] observations from this morning:

I am a Conservative: I get that Israel and America are fighting the same war against the same enemy. #tcot #teaparty #gop

I am a Conservative: I’ve done more than just fly-over the states that don’t touch the ocean. #tcot #teaparty #gop

I am a Conservative: I think F.A., rather than Salma, is the hottest Hayek. #tcot #gop

I am a Conservative: Why would you sign a union contract that keeps you from firing incompetent teachers? B/c you’re the govt. #tcot #gop

I am a Conservative: We don’t need a revolution. We had one. We need a restoration. It starts 11/2/10. #tcot #teaparty #gop

I am a Conservative: This is my country. I built it. I defended it. And I’m not just walking away from it. #tcot #teaparty #gop

I am a Conservative: My Che t-shirt has a picture of him post-ventilation with the caption “Ha, ha!” #tcot #teaparty #gop #cuba

I am a Conservative: I think we’ve been at war with Iran for over 30 years; I just think we ought to fight back. #tcot #teaparty #gop

I am a Conservative: No, Mr. Progressive, my success is not the cause of your failure. You are. #tcot #teaparty #gop

I am a Conservative: Liberalism = Envy; Conservatism=Ambition. #tcot #teaparty #gop

I am a Conservative: Many problems in our society could be solved by not ever again giving money to deadbeats. #tcot #teaparty #gop

I am a Conservative: I don’t buy global warming b/c I’m not progressive enough to believe can control the weather. #tcot #teaparty #gop

I am a Conservative: No one who would exclude our military is fit to serve on the SCOTUS. http://is.gd/cJcuS #tcot #teaparty #gop #rs

I am a Conservative: The #gop will be serious about cutting spending when they filibuster NEA and PBS spending. #tcot #teaparty #rs

I am a Conservative: You’re free to try to impose sharia in America. And I’m free to help you get your virgins. #tcot #teaparty #gop #rs

Kurt is one of those guys who has served his country and continues to do so as a patriot, but he also puts together some original thoughts. There are a lot of people like him on Twitter; you can follow Kurt here. It is up to you to find the ones that you find interesting enough to follow, but I can suggest a few.

Some people to check out on Twitter:

For good, funny and often patriotic thoughts

Exurban Jon, Kurt Schlichter, Anthropocon, Jim Treacher,

For prolific tweets of good articles

Psst Erica, TRScoop, Gay Patriot, Cubachi, Caleb Howe

Opinionated Bloggers

Dan Riehl, Robert McCain, Matt K. Lewis, Nick Gillespie, Jim Geraghty, allahpundit, Erick Erickson, Doctor Zero, Tabitha Hale, Michelle Malkin, Ed Morrissey,

Politicians/Candidates on Twitter

Rand Paul, John Bolton, Rep. Paul Ryan, Rep. Mike Pence, Rep. Darrell Issa, Rep. Michele Bachmann, Marco Rubio, Sen. Jim DeMint,

Journalists on Twitter

Andrew Malcolm, Steve Hayes, Jamie Dupree, Mark Knoller, Major Garrett, Andrew Napolitano, Michael Yon, John Stossel, Andrew Breitbart

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