Essay 3

I wanted to explore the web sites of political groups that are at the opposite end(s) of the spectrum from my personal politics. The Cato Institute and the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute web sites are the Web presence of anti-government Libertarians in the former and anti-feminist conservative women in the latter. I am a life-long democrat.

The Cato Institute’s Web site is very robust. There is an easy to use navigation on the left side that is in very large type. I assume this is because many of their readers are older and they understand how frustratingly small many site’s type is these days. There is also plenty of white space. They offer an ‘About’ page as the first link and it explains their views clearly. They are a pro-business, pro-individualist, anti-big government organization that desires to see the “true meaning” of the Declaration of independence and the Constitution be more fully subscribed to. They offer multimedia, blogs, publications and an area that lists their speakers. They have daily podcasts and video clips very prominently displayed on their page. I see no outside advertising. The titles of their stories are very large and are all you need as a visitor to immediately understand what this organization is about. For example, “Why Government Planning Always Fails” or “Supreme Neglect: How to Revive Constitutional Protection for Private Property.” As a Web site I have to give this organization much credit for such an easy to use site that offers a lot of information that is easy to find. The site is modern and offers most Web 2.0 features.

The Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute’s Web Site is equally engaging. The site relies upon visuals to grab a potential viewers attention. There is a slide show running at the top of the page that shows pictures from functions where many young, conservative women have gathered for speakers or social events. The look of the women tell you much about who they typically attract. The navigation runs along the top of the page and like the Cato Institute’s Web site has an ‘About” link as they first link. Unlike Cato’s, the page isn’t as robust in terms of offerings and tends to be very text heavy. It does have an ‘Issues and Policy’ link that takes the viewer to a page that is bisected into two parts: Issues and Policies and Policy Express. Here there are large, bolded, and underlined topics that give a flavor for the site’s views and content, similar to the way Cato does. However, the two site’s do not share policies. For example, “How Sex Ed Risks Girls’ Health” and “Balancing Social Security’s Books on the Backs of the Wealthy.”

The writing style of the two sites differs dramatically. Cato Institute writing is brash, forward, and unapologetic in its demands for bootstrap rugged individualistic positions. It makes no bones about its strong desires to return to Jeffersonian principles of American Democracy and a revolutionary times’ definition of liberty. A quote from a blog post by Daniel Griswold:

“Of course, supporting a middle class family can be and often is hard work. But we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be panicked into grasping for big-government solutions to an economic crisis that does not exist.”

You can click on Griswold’s name and it takes you to a bio page about him. I find this to be refreshing. They do not hide their views and make it easy to engage in dialog with their policy setters.

The language used by the Luce site is more reserved and requires one to already vaguely understand what they are about and to read between the lines. Once you read for a while you understand very clearly that they don’t like lesbians, liberal feminist university professors, open sexuality of any kind, and especially welfare women and illegal immigrants. This shouldn’t be surprising coming from a group whose aim it is to return to the days where women don’t talk about sex and they blatantly state that their should be a fence along the entire border of Mexico and the U.S. They are also endorsing all-out attacks on the Vagina Monologues and the use of the “V-word” in popular culture (their phrasing, not mine!) Titles of some of their publications include How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must), and Global Warming: What You Haven’t Been Told. They have links to see Anne Coulter speak.

While I do not share the politics of either of these groups, I do appreciate how easy to is to find out what they stand for, who their board members are, and what activities they involve themselves in. Their Web sites are actually quite good. I spent several hours watching videos, reading blogs, news stories and board member bios, and this on sites whose views I don’t agree with.