The Wide Awakes are a diverse group of like-minded individuals who have formed an alliance both to propagate conservative views and values on the internet as well as protect ourselves from the increasingly strident and sometimes nasty and vicious attacks of our political opponents.

As of late, our opponents have sought not simply to disagree with us but rather use methods and tactics that are annoying, obscene, unconscionable, and in some cases, illegal. They have spammed our comment sections, insulted our commenters, spammed our email accounts, invaded our privacy, and threatened our peace of mind.

Most importantly, their irresponsible activities have lowered the level of political discourse thus doing a great disservice to our country and our republic.

The Wide Awakes consists of both Defenders and Writers. Defenders will function as something of a minuteman corps able to leap to the defense of a Writer who is attacked by one of the many leftist trolls who surf the conservative blogs. While defenders should always give as good as they get in such battles, they should be aware that humor, satire, and reasoned arguments are the best defense against any and all trolls.

Writers will be posting at thewideawakes.org. They may post original pieces written exclusively for thewideawakes site or cross post a column from their own site. The posts can be of any length and about any subject. The Admins, at their discretion, can ask the poster to modify the piece for style, length, and in extreme cases, content. While not everyone agrees on every issue, it is the Admins job to have the site reflect a coherent point of view. Posts that radically deviate from past positions posted on the site could result in a confused message. This admonition should be kept in mind by all writers making it an excellent idea to visit the site on a regular basis.

Finally, through promoting The Wide Awakes and thewideawakes.org, it's hoped that we can make an impact on the political and cultural debate in this country between those who cherish our ideals of freedom, democracy, and cultural traditions and those who seek to destroy those traditions and in the process, we believe, destroy the freedom and democracy those traditions serve and protect.