About ten years ago, my parents moved to rural Eastern Oregon to enjoy their retirement. They were tired of the fast pace of life in Portland. Life long Democrats, they were pleasantly surprised to encounter many liberals and left-leaning moderates in their new community. Yet their sole source of news is the local moderate paper and TV news. Like many older adults, they don't have any interest in searching the internet for their news. For them, the internet is for booking airline flights and email.
They are both avid Hillary Clinton supporters because Bill Clinton visited the region. They are completely unaware of all the real news about Hillary, Barack, and John McCain. I do my best to send them links to diaries that are better researched and written than their local paper, or even many articles in the Oregonian.
My parents came for a visit and we got into an argument regarding the Reverend Wright and Barack Obama. I kept referencing Daily Kos and actually showing my Dad various articles and links. While he still isn't going to vote for Barack, he expressed surprise at the quality of the arguments made on Daily Kos. He asked if any of the bloggers wrote for newspapers. I had to tell him I didn't know.
It got me to thinking that to reach people like my parents and their neighbors, perhaps certain bloggers should begin trying to submit articles to local small town papers. There are many people who, if they read it in their local paper, tend to believe what they are reading. In the upcoming election, small town people are going to lean towards McCain because the information they get is going to mostly be pro-McCain.
We've got some of the best writers here at DailyKos. I think advancing our message through the mainstream media might help influence others who would never find DailyKos themselves.