By Sean Coit
PoliticsPA
sean@politicspa.com
“Have you ever been sitting around the house, waxing your back and drinking melange van Ceylon tea when suddenly it hit you: “I need to know what Daylin thinks about today’s news”? I know I have!! Well your days of silent (and mild) anguish are over.”
That was [part of] the email we received last week, as State Sen. Daylin Leach (D-Delaware/Montgomery) officially launched his new blog, Daylinsights.com. Known as one of the sharpest, funniest legislators in Harrisburg, Leach sat down with PoliticsPA to discuss the real goals of his new social media tool.
PoliticsPA: What went behind the decision to start blogging?
Leach: “We had discussion about the opportunity to write and get our views out more widely than they are now, and we had a number of discussions about whether we’re using the various media that are there now. Are we using social media? Are we using blogs? So the feeling is to try to do our best, considering I’m an old guy at this point, to use the modern tools of of communication as effectively as we can”
PoliticsPA: So far, you’ve labeled Pat Robertson and Liz Cheney as two people that are “bringing the crazy.” Are we going to see more of that?
Leach: “I hope so, I think it’s a way of pointing out hypocrisy or just oddness, in modern political life, whether it’s in Harrisburg or Washington. It’s an opportunity to, in a light hearted way, make a serious point.” [On his most recent "Bringing the Crazy" post highlighting Liz Cheney's "Keep America Safe" organization] “That is a rather aggressive attempt to paint people who disagree with her as not only unpatriotic, but literally treasonous in the sense that they’re fighting for the enemy. Things like that, I think, should be exposed. I have a small voice in a small part of the world, and so I want to use that to expose things that I think need to be exposed and comment on things that I think need to be commented on.”
PoliticsPA: Lots of blogs and social media outlets turn into personal diaries online, how do you avoid that?
Leach: “When I have a unique perspective or at least a perspective on an issue that I think is unique, I want to try and get that out there. One time I did a post on the five most banal possible posts, including, ‘I’m running low on tape.’ I have no interest in telling people when I’m making Jiffy Pop. This is all going to be about issues I think people will be interested in reading about”
PoliticsPA: Will the blog help you do you legislate?
Leach: “It does help legislate in some ways. I don’t know about the blog yet, but certainly Twitter and Facebook are very helpful in legislating. We have several roles, one is legislating, another is constituent and community service, and blogging and getting information about that will be helpful. Beyond that, we have a platform to talk about issues. I think this will be effective as a platform to enable me to talk about issues. I like to hear from constituents, but I take on a lot of issues that a lot of other people don’t take on, in part because they don’t take them on, and so this will give us an opportunity to really get conversations started, which is really the main goal of this.”
PoliticsPA: What blogs do you read?
Leach: I read Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, Firedoglake.com, Drudge Report, and I also read Real Clear Politics – that’s usually the lap I do if I can get a half hour during the day.
PoliticsPA: What about PoliticsPA?
Leach: “Oh. PoliticsPA is the first and last one I read.”
Tags: Daylin Leach
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