Jordan Smith at the Atlantic reports on the creation of a “fun” new right-wing website called Ricochet:
The distinguishing feature of Ricochet will be its unique format, which promises to look unlike any other site on the net. “It will not be a news aggregator, or a megachat like Daily Kos, but instead will be a feed like Facebook or Twitter or Tumbler,” says James Poulos, Ricochet’s managing editor. Approximately 40 contributors will have an online conversation that is akin to a conservative cocktail party.
I’m actually inclined to agree with Dan Riehl that conservatives are already having plenty of fun on the web. Robert Stacy McCain complains that he wasn’t invited and that his team should devote their efforts to electing more Republicans.
I would rather that they devote a little time and attention to having Republicans not, you know, ruin the country once they take power again. After the Bush administration left the country with two quagmires and an economy on the brink of depression, I naively expected conservatives to spend more time thinking about why that happened.I haven’t seen the “Boy, Were We Wrong on Iraq” issues of either The Weekly Standard or National review. David Frum, the one-time enforcer of the right made a high profile effort to rethink some things and seems to have become a persona non grata on the right. Fair enough, I never cared for Frum anyway and I don’t think that he has rethought his views on the Iraq disaster. But I have noticed that Rod Dreher also drifted away from NR after his views mildly evolved a few years back. If you go back far enough, you would find that Andrew Bacevich used to appear in National Review before committing the sin of being right on Iraq. I don’t see that Ricochet has invited Bacevich to join in the conversation. I guess he isn’t much “fun.”
They will, however, have Andrew Klavan, Victor Davis Hanson and Haley Barbour. I’m having fun already.
Clark Stooksbury 
SteveM 
obi juan 
Neville Eocon : The Other Epistarch 
Young Geezer 
Randal 
NorthtoSouth 
Fran Rossi 
The following paragraph alone will show why this new site will fall flat on its face like Culture11 no matter how long its benefactors try to keep it going.
“Ricochet will in many ways be the stepchild of Culture 11, the short-lived but important website that tried to reinvent conservatism in the post-Bush era. Poulos was political editor at Culture 11, and the sites share a commitment to reconciling the right wing with popular culture. But unlike its predecessor, Ricochet feels no need to rethink conservatism–it is instead a sign that in the Obama era, right-wingers feel confident enough in their ideas and prospects that they think major ideological modifications are unprincipled and unncessary. “At a time when the country is being dragged to the left by Washington and mainstream media, this is another way to fight back,” says Robinson. “Since the demise of Culture11, politics have changed,” says Poulos. “The conversation on the right has become more interesting and productive than it was.” In addition, Obama has been in the White House long enough to convince people of the direction he’s taking America in, he says.
In other words, Obama was a Godsend because it allowed the establishment Right to focus on common foe instead of rethinking or reinventing itself. We don’t have to change anything, which is too hard and too laborous and requires too much thinking to accomplish. We’ll just spend the time bashing the Obama Administration, and we’ll laugh and hoist a beer while doing so. And play really cool music too. The same people saying the same things on a new website. Big deal.
You can’t reconcile the Right Wing with popular culture. Because the popular culture is anti-Right wing or what presumably would be called “Conservative”. This is why Culutre11 was left with articles about “gangsta rap” and conservatism. The popular culture may accept a Right winger if they shoot somebody or blow something up like Rambo or Jack Bauer. But most figures who are presumably conservative in their lifestyle or region are often targets for ridicule or seen as sinister. And so long as the Republican party and those on the Right depend upon such people for votes, then it’s hard to take such ventures that try to suck up to popular culture rather than change it or separate themselves from it seriously.
By the way, how many important website you know of are “short lived”?