One of the most important things we have to do is figure out a way to bridge some of the divides in our country, and that involves escaping our echo chambers. Now, I’m certainly not suggesting having all of your Trump supporting relatives over for a party of politics and piñatas, nor am I advocating arguing with online trolls.

During this election we made a number of friends on the conservative side who were #NeverTrump. They have remained so, and it is vital, imperative even, that we keep open these lines of communication from here on. This is our country, dammit, not Mitch McConnell’s.

Immediately after the election, many of us understandably cocooned ourselves while in shock. But now that we are getting a bit better, it is time to think about peeking outside our echo chambers and expose ourselves to other points of view.

But as bad as the Liberal media is about exaggerated and fake news, conservative media is a bloody nightmare! So I have put together a list of sources I read with input from some of my conservative friends.







First, follow leaders of the movements, not regular people. You don’t need to be distracted by childish arguments using vernacular like “killary and libtard”. You need to listen, maybe ask questions, but remember your goal is to learn from them, not to educate them on your point of view. (Guess which part I struggle with?)

Below is a list of conservative and libertarian pundits who are good to follow.

^^You can follow all of them on Twitter as well.

Read multiple sources from all sides. This list includes conservative and libertarian sources.

^^All the pay sites offer a limited number of free articles per month. Take advantage of those, or just read them in incognito mode on your browser for unlimited access.

*RedState is pretty decent, but not great. It really depends on the author. Ben Howe is good; Streiff is not. The others vary.

**National Review has some very good stuff like The White Ghetto by Kevin Williamson, and some mediocre/bad stuff. They allow a large number of opinions, so they publish some really good and some really bad content. Some of NR is just Heritage Foundation style loyalists, but NR also has some truly great writers such as:

Jonah Goldberg

Kevin D Williamson

Jay Nordlinger

Charles Cooke

Ramesh Ponnuru

Reihan Salam

You may also decide to follow some of your favorite authors after you have had time to get to know their style and positions a bit better.

This exposure has given me several advantages. Sometimes it helps me hone my own arguments. At times, it will pull me back toward the middle, because I can now see both sides. And of course, on occasion, I get a really great endorphin release from laughing so hard. But mostly it allows me to make sure I am taking in a balanced amount of and approach to the news.

Maybe I can make recommendations to my conservative friends who might be living in their own echo chambers and hopefully keep them away from the Macedonian teenagers.

Give some of these a try, and let me know what you think! If you have some to add, I’d love to know about those as well.