The Politics of Email: Son of Reagan liberally attacks Apple, Google and Microsoft

happygeek 2 Tallied Votes 895 Views Share

Michael Reagan, the eldest son of former US President Ronald Reagan, has accused people who use email services from Apple, AOL, Google, Hotmail and Yahoo! of "supporting the Obama, Pelosi and Reid liberal agenda" and ultimately "hurting our country". His answer, for those supporters of what he calls true "Reagan Conservative Values" is the first conservative email service provider .

In a truly bizarre attack on some of the most successful and popular providers of email across the planet, Michael Reagan insists that every time someone with conservative political views uses their email from these companies they are "helping the liberals".

Apple, AOL, Google, Microsoft (through Hotmail) and Yahoo! are, Reagan says "huge supporters financially and with technology of those that are hurting our country". By establishing an alternative email provider at Reagan.com, the politician reckons that supporters of the "Greatest Conservative of all, my father Ronald Reagan" can support true conservative values.

"When you purchase your email address @Reagan.com you are supporting truly conservative causes and the proceeds from this conservative initiative will help me promote true Reagan values to win back our country in November and in 2012" Michael Reagan promises.

A Reagan.com email account will set you back $39.95 per year from today. For that, you might expect to get a heck of a lot better support than the free mail service providers. But if you read the terms of service agreement it clearly states: "we are under no obligation to provide you with any support, error corrections, updates, upgrades, bug fixes and/or enhancements of the Service".

Is it just me, or are politics the last thing on your mind when you are choosing an email provider? No matter what your political leanings, surely all you really want from your email provider is, well, an email service that is easy to use, reliable, secure and with good customer technical support. The big five named by Reagan have achieved their success by offering just that, and offering it for free I might add.

jon.kiparsky 326 Posting Virtuoso

Reagan.com - The first ISP to run with no memory whatsoever...

commented: heh,heh - good on you +0
happygeek 2,411 Most Valuable Poster Team Colleague Featured Poster

Arf arf :)

AuburnMathTutor 37 Junior Poster

Jeez I'm a conservative and that just makes me cringe. Why are conservatives so dumb? Am I that dumb? I'm going to go cry now.

Agilemind 0 Posting Whiz in Training

Can't wait for the Conservative search engine that only find conservative biased websites! or the conservative OS that randomly deletes files/programs and downloads a log of everything you do straight to the CIA to check your not a terrorist.

AuburnMathTutor 37 Junior Poster

Have you seen Conservapedia? That blew my mind when I found it and read about the "Liberal bias" in Wikipedia.

I guess I'm more of a libertarian than a conservative. I'm nuts, but at least I acknowledge the fact.

Biker920 0 Posting Whiz in Training Featured Poster

No one ever said Brains or common sense were passed on at birth. Later---

BartClark 0 Newbie Poster

First off....I have 12 .me accounts..... And unlessn you want crippled, temporary services....they are far from free. And, for what it's worth....why SHOULD they be free...? And.....to a degree Reagan has identified some aspects of this issue right (all puns intended).

For example.....can you imagine the media, Internet, blogger articles that would be pointing out THIS VERY CONNECTION if the four BIG email providers on the net were Haliburton, Mercer, GD, and Glock????

It wouldn't matter how good the services were....the fact that you would be supporting 'conservative' companies would be seen (rightfully?) as a thoughtless thing to do if you were a legit anti-war anti-gun liberal. Why support and build up the customer bases and coffers of companies who lobby for things you feel are 'wrong'.

Now....as a liberal or a conservative....where do you go from here? That's up to you.... Personally, I'm just often too lazy to research what all the companiesnare lobbying for so I usually just go with the one I'm familiar with..... But....sometimes....a company will go 'to far' for me and I stop supporting them.

Still.....the point is very valid: why not do business with a company that stands for something you believe in instead of handing over your information and money to people who will try to use that clout to push an agenda--liberal OR conservative.....which is opposed to your own?

What be your thoughts people?

Sincerely,


Bart Clark
Dallas, Texas

jon.kiparsky 326 Posting Virtuoso

Well, I suppose it depends on what you're buying. If you want to buy an ideology and get a product as a premium, it makes sense to take your service provider's ideology into consideration. If you think that the service and the price will be comparable to the alternatives, then you can look at other factors, like the ideological stance of the provider. If you find the signalling value of a "reagan.com" email address to be sufficient to warrant any price/service concerns (if any), then it's a sensible move.

For my part, I'm somewhat disturbed by the "us/them" mindset that many people on many sides take. I'm generally bothered by the idea that one should only do business with - should only interact with! - those of the same political team. If someone's selling good email service, or beer, or what have you for a reasonable price, I'll buy it, and they can do what they want with their money. I'd be tremendously bored if I only talked to people who agreed with me.

Agilemind 0 Posting Whiz in Training

First off....I have 12 .me accounts..... And unlessn you want crippled, temporary services....they are far from free. And, for what it's worth....why SHOULD they be free...? And.....to a degree Reagan has identified some aspects of this issue right (all puns intended).

For example.....can you imagine the media, Internet, blogger articles that would be pointing out THIS VERY CONNECTION if the four BIG email providers on the net were Haliburton, Mercer, GD, and Glock????

It wouldn't matter how good the services were....the fact that you would be supporting 'conservative' companies would be seen (rightfully?) as a thoughtless thing to do if you were a legit anti-war anti-gun liberal. Why support and build up the customer bases and coffers of companies who lobby for things you feel are 'wrong'.

Now....as a liberal or a conservative....where do you go from here? That's up to you.... Personally, I'm just often too lazy to research what all the companiesnare lobbying for so I usually just go with the one I'm familiar with..... But....sometimes....a company will go 'to far' for me and I stop supporting them.

Still.....the point is very valid: why not do business with a company that stands for something you believe in instead of handing over your information and money to people who will try to use that clout to push an agenda--liberal OR conservative.....which is opposed to your own?

What be your thoughts people?

Sincerely,


Bart Clark
Dallas, Texas

Your mixing up cause and effect.

If Haliburton, Mercer, GD, and Glock did transform themselves into internet/IT companies would they still be conservative? I think not.

The way a company does its business/makes its money dictates its political leaning not the other way round. The reason internet/IT companies are liberal is because liberal politicians support policies that help them make money not because Google supports gay-rights and abortion.

The political leanings of a company are usually nothing to do with the people who work their or the CEO it is all about money. If you make money off sharing information that people give to you (eg. Facebook, Google) it will cost you money to have tighter privacy controls and more restictions on sharing information or to have less educated people to work for you. Where as if you make money off drilling and selling oil it will cost you money to have more environmental restrictions, more fuel efficient cars, subsidies for alternative energy sources. Or if your a gun company of course your not going to support politicians trying to ban guns because it would hurt your bottom line. It doesn't mean Glock is anti-gay rights. Or that Haliburton is anti-gun control.

The way a company does business dictates its politics not the other way round. Google isn't a liberal company that offers free e-mail, it is an e-mail company so it supports liberal politicians.

ithelp 757 Posting Virtuoso Banned

They found a good way to sell their email service to conservatives.

Agilemind 0 Posting Whiz in Training

They found a good way to sell their email service to conservatives.

Yes but they are fundamentally a conservative political organization so they are selling the ideology with the service as an extra bonus they are not selling the email service. (no different than charities that sell plush animals, they are selling the charity with the toy as a bonus not selling the toy)

jon.kiparsky 326 Posting Virtuoso

(no different than charities that sell plush animals, they are selling the charity with the toy as a bonus not selling the toy)

Yep. FSF sells a stuffed gnu for $20. The buyers of this toy are not collectors of stuffed animals, they're FSF fans (ie, likely donors) who want a trinket to keep by their computer or who want to buy a cool present for their SO (who is likely also a free software enthusiast). The product is a tool for signalling allegiance.
See also band T-shirts and sports jerseys - wearable tribal membership, badges of community membership. Your reagan.com email address (or member.fsf.org, or alumni.mycollege.edu address for that matter) is just another variation on this game.
I wouldn't be surprised if more groups started picking up this idea. You can get branded credit cards for your favorite charities, why shouldn't you also be able to get your mail forwarded from supporter.aclu.org or member.nra.org?

VernonDozier 2,218 Posting Expert Featured Poster

Does anyone but me not trust Michael Reagan to decide which of our e-mails (i.e. ALL of them) need to be automatically turned over to the FBI, CIA, NSA, etc. for "national security" reasons? They probably wouldn't even have to subpeona them. Michael Reagan would do a massive search for "I voted for Obama". Bam! You're on the terrorist watch list.

whgeiger -4 Newbie Poster

Just one more example of divisive, irrelevant arguments based on false premises. Liberal vs. Conservative, and Large vs. Small Government; one is better than the other nonsense. E-Mail and the Internet have nothing to do with this political buffoonery, other than to convey and disseminate it.

ing 0 Newbie Poster

Does anybody else find it ironic that there's a Google ad on this page for the Ronald Reagan Library???

Since the Reagans are advertising through Google, it can only mean one thing: The Reagans are "supporting the Obama, Pelosi and Reid liberal agenda" and ultimately "hurting our country".

Didn't think that one through, did ya Mikey?

What's terrifying is that internet law is shaped by ignorant politicians with personal agendas who have no understanding of how the internet works or the value it has. This is why Net Neutrality is threatened right now.

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