The Anti-Rebels These two young conservatives have plenty to say about pretty much everything. They're hoping the world's listening. Delaware Today, August 2004 When the News Journal in early June splashed across its front page a story headlined, "Vaughn shuts door on young lobbyists," Stephen MacDonald couldn't help but comment about it on the Web. "So three high school students can't meet with a state senator because he's in a meeting, and this is supposed to be news?" he wrote. MacDonald, 26, who graduated from Villanova Law School this spring, is a young conservative with a laptop and a DSL connection. For the past two years, he has regularly skewered the News Journal on Blogolution.com, a Delaware-based political Web log. It's surprising, considering the primary object of MacDonald's criticism, that the site's owner, Ken Weeks, 28, is an employee of the News Journal. Weeks, an online advertising representative for the News Journal, founded the site as a personal hobby, although in his own posts, he keeps his focus on national politics and tends not to directly criticize his employer. Still, he says, MacDonald's posts deserve a fair shake. "There are lots of people who read the News Journal, and in their heads, they're responding to what they read," Weeks says. "Steve just writes it down." For a while, Weeks says, he's felt uneasy about what the News Journal higher-ups may think of the site if they get word of it — but, he says, glancing at MacDonald for approval, "I think I should probably get over that." Weeks would love to turn his hobby into a profession and make a living as a political pundit. He'd fit the mold: He's passionate, he's talkative, and he has an opinion — a colorful opinion — on just about everything. On liberal filmmaker Michael Moore: "I think if you stab Michael Moore, mayo will come out." On the Abu Ghraib prison scandal: "The New York Times mentions it in every book review." On Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry: "That guy, he's rudderless. He has two sides to every issue." On the war in Iraq: "America, I think, is a victim of its own success. We're so fat and happy that if a single soldier dies, it's like we're losing the war." He's got a keen ability to make his quotes juicy and sound-bite-ish; he watches with extreme satisfaction as I scribble down his mayo line. His approach is part Rush Limbaugh and part Howard Stern. He considers himself a modern sort of anti-disestablishmentarian, fed up with the "fight-the-power" mentality of contemporary youth culture. To illustrate his "anti-rebel" stance, he came up with a peculiar logo for Blogolution.com: a spray-painted headshot of Che Guevara, the Cuban communist revolutionary, with a Nike logo stamped on his forehead. In contrast to Weeks, who focuses on mostly national issues, MacDonald prefers to write about Delaware and its local goings-on. He is particularly critical of the News Journal's editorial board and its columnists, calling Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Norman Lockman "the poor man's Paul Krugman" in one Blogolution post. (He later concedes: "That probably was a little over the top.") However, his overarching point remains true, he says. "The main problem with the News Journal is that they are unchallenged." So, he takes it upon himself to challenge them. His posts on Blogolution.com began as mostly bias allegations, he says, but now he prefers to grind through the issues rather than dwelling on the writers' intents. "I've tried to move away from, 'See! They're liberal! I've caught them!'" he says. It doesn't escape either of these young Web writers that compared to their peers, they're hyper-aware of the political world. Both men have worked for Delaware Republican campaigns — MacDonald was the director of operations for Bill Roth's 2000 senate campaign, and Weeks worked for Ray Clatworthy's campaign. In fact, they met at Republican Party headquarters on election night 2002 when the room had cleared out and they were still glued to the TV set. Weeks and MacDonald have some big plans for Blogolution.com, but they've also got busy professional and social lives. MacDonald has spent the last few months studying for the bar exam, and Weeks has been planning for his wedding. Even if they do find more time to expand the site, Weeks says, its growth will require revenue. Hence, they've started selling Blogolution-branded coffee mugs, bumper stickers and ceramic-tile beverage coasters through their online store, the "Capitalist Exploitation Center." So far, they've met with limited success. "I've sold two coffee mugs," Weeks says, "one to my dad and one to his dad," pointing to MacDonald. "We're failed capitalists," he says, and adds with a shrug, "We've both got day jobs." For all their enthusiasm about conservatism, though, there have been some concessions. Weeks, for instance, fell in love with a left-leaner. His fiancˇe, he says, is his polar opposite when it comes to political views — and he wouldn't have it any other way. "Through talking to her, you get a perspective about things," he says. "If I had somebody parroting back my views, I'd probably just ... I'd be building a concrete bunker in my back yard." Shaun Gallagher is Delaware Today's managing editor.