Putting My Mouth Where the Money Is
Tired of Playing the Op-Ed Game, A Writer Turns to Substack
In the coming days, weeks, and months, I will post opinion pieces on many of the key issues facing America and the world. I’m new to this medium, so give me a little time to get up to speed. To get a sense of my work, you can visit the website of the think tank I run at www.opportunityohio.org. As I note, I will write from the perspective of middle America. All too often that perspective is overlooked by the coastal elites and the Acela Corridor.
As a former Visiting Fellow at both The Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute, even conservatives in Washington, D.C., give little weight to the opinions of those of us from the Red States. I’ve debated “conservatives” in D.C. who opposed decentralizing all power and responsibility for Medicaid to the states because she believed the federal government should still set eligibility requirements and other elements of a block grant Medicaid program (still can’t figure out how that view is conservative…).
I’m turning to Substack for a couple of reasons. First, despite a strong track record of getting op-eds published in the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, CNN, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, The Spectator USA, The Federalist, and other big-name publications, I find it far too much work to figure out how to do so consistently. When my pieces are accepted for publication, those pieces get picked up by RealClearPolitics and perform well over social media. Thus, I believe there is merit to my work. My sense, however, is that many publications have little interest in publishing the thoughts of Middle America unless the writer is a big name.
Secondly, I’ve spent years writing for free for publications with the hope that those “kick the tires” gigs would lead to paid contributing writing positions. I learned instead that if you’ll do something for free, they’ll take it for free without giving any thought to paying you for it. Most recently, I wrote for an outlet in which I produced more pieces in eight months than most of their paid writers and many of my pieces were picked up by RCP where they were ranked #1 for the day and in some cases the entire week. Heck, Laura Ingraham even used one of the pieces on her show. When I finally approached the outlet for a paid role, they ghosted me. As Bill Clinton famously said, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
Lastly, I like the idea of Substack. It places me in total control of my writings and growing my audience. If I succeed, I can then try to monetize my work. The capitalistic nature of Substack aligns with my beliefs. After all, why should I let another publication make money off of my thoughts when I can now do that myself?
With these thoughts put down, I’ll now turn to writing my first substantive piece on whether Americans really would support sacrificing blood and treasure to defend Ukraine from Russia and Taiwan from China. Look for it soon. Cheers!
Best of luck with it!
And, if you know anyone who truly wants to put the freedom back in education, let me know.