Interview Owen Robinson of Boots And Sabers

The inauguration of President Obama last Tuesday was a cause for celebration among most Americans—George W. Bush left office with a 33 percent approval rating, according to The Washington Post—but not for Owen Robinson, a Milwaukee area man who co-writes the conservative political blog Boots And Sabers. Founded five and a half years ago with his friend Jed, who is currently an active Army JAG officer, Boots And Sabers has made Robinson a prominent local pundit who regularly appears on WTMJ’s Sunday Insight With Charlie Sykes and writes a column for the West Bend Daily News. Decider spoke with Robinson about his love of the blood sport of online political discourse, especially now that the Democrats are in charge.

Decider: How miserable are you right now?
Owen Robinson: [Laughs.] I wouldn’t call it miserable. The beauty of America is we do have this system of government where no one man can make sweeping changes without getting a lot of people on board. So, I guess I’m more hopeful than I was a few months ago. As conservatives, we have a responsibility to make sure our voices continue to be heard.
D: George W. Bush obviously has taken a lot of abuse from liberals over the past eight years. Are conservatives gearing up to take revenge on Obama?
OR: Not a bit. I think the way many on the left treated President Bush was just flat-out disrespectful, calling him a chimp and those kinds of things. He was our duly elected president, elected twice. We can disagree with his policies—there’s certainly plenty of policies that I disagreed with—but we owe a certain amount of respect to our president. I’m hoping the level of debate can be brought up under Obama’s presidency, but it’s our responsibility on the other side of the aisle to make sure we don’t sink to that level, because it’s not right.
D: In the “About Us” section of your blog, you say you love the “blood sport” of politics, and certainly the Internet is a bloody battleground for discourse. But isn’t that blood sport aspect a big part of the problem?
OR: No. [Laughs.] A robust political discourse is important to make sure we make smart decisions. The left decided to jump all over McCain because he owns so many houses and he comes from a place of wealth. While I don’t agree with how they approached that, I think that’s an important piece of information for people to know, because it helps tell us who the man is, where he’s coming from, and how he might view the world.
D: But how helpful is it when the Republican Party Of Wisconsin sends out mass mailings about Barack Obama’s supposed connections to William Ayers? Why not talk about what’s good about John McCain instead of trying to tear down the other guy?
OR: That was a campaign strategy, and obviously one that failed. But the information itself is important to know. You have to know what kind of people President Obama has been associating himself with because, again, that tells you something about the man. As a political strategy it may or may not have been a good idea—given the political winds last year I don’t know that there’s any way McCain could have won—but that was the strategy they chose. There’s a whole bunch of voices out there, and it’s up to the American people to filter that information to decide what’s relevant to them.
D: When did you know that Boots And Sabers had an audience?
OR: In 2004, I became heavily involved in the campaign for U.S. Senate here in Wisconsin. I attended debates and discussed them because, one, I wanted to decide who to support, but also because I thought the local media was doing a very poor job covering it. Honestly, I think most reporters are a little bit to the left—I think that’s a fair statement [Laughs]—and they don’t understand the differences in conservative ideology. The three Republican candidates were conservative to a degree, but there were differences, so I tried to ferret out those differences. When those campaigns started to lobby me—they’d send me leaks, or try to spin me—that’s when I noticed that people were reading me.
D: Do you think your blog influences people?
OR: I’ve always tried approach my blog like this: I’m just a guy. I’m a conservative Wisconsin guy, and these are my thoughts on what’s going on around me in the world. Period. If that influences people, great. If not, so be it. I don’t see myself, personally, in the mode of trying to change the world. It’s the equivalent of sitting at the tavern and chatting with the guy next to you.
D: Most people avoid talking about politics because they don’t want to alienate people or get into arguments. You put your beliefs out there every day. Does that create awkwardness in your private life?
OR: I do have a number of customers and peers at work who are liberal. But what I’ve found is that if you approach things with an honesty of debate, that we can have honest differences of opinion, it doesn’t affect those personal relationships. If it does, then I think that person is approaching the issue wrong. I would put that on their shoulders, and I’m not sure I want to have a relationship with that person anyway.
D: Are you friendly with other local bloggers?
OR: Oh yeah. I know quite a few of them. That’s one of the nice things about the Wisconsin blogosphere, particularly on the conservative side, although the liberal side, I know they get together once a month to go drinking together. The conservative side has a thing called Drinking Right, where we have a few beers and swap stories. We’ve had Christmas functions, a few barbecues over the summer—we all have similar interests, so it’s been a great way to meet people.
D: Conservative or liberal bloggers: Who wins in a cage match to the death?
OR: Considering the conservatives are more likely to arm themselves, I have to give it to us.