Rising Blue Tide Sinks a Conservative Mag | The Source Weekly - Bend

Rising Blue Tide Sinks a Conservative Mag

It's the end of the line for Brainstorm NW: The editor of the 12-year-old conservative Republican magazine has disclosed that the February issue will be

It's the end of the line for Brainstorm NW: The editor of the 12-year-old conservative Republican magazine has disclosed that the February issue will be its last.


Founded in 1997, the Lake Oswego-based monthly claimed 10,000 subscribers and a print run of 25,000 copies, but fell victim to declining advertising and contributions as the result of the George W. Bush Depression (which it no doubt would call the Ted Kulongoski/Barack Obama Depression).

"We were the voice of many Oregonians, but we have been stilled by the failing economy we predicted for this past decade," editor Bridget Barton writes in her final editorial, a copy of which she sent to Oregonian columnist Steve Duin. "Ironic. Sad. In this instance it has been less than gratifying to be right. But given that a pro-business publication in Oregon is a bit more of a rare hothouse orchid than an old growth Doug fir, it is not surprising that we could not weather the economic and political firestorm."

Barton congratulated her publication for being a voice crying out in Oregon's liberal wilderness: "For 12 years we have sounded the alarm that Oregon's business climate was rapidly cooling. We have made the case that our planet was just as likely to be cooling and that the global warming fanatics were just that, con artists seeking power and financial gain. For 12 years we warned that ignoring the rich resources of rural Oregon was foolhardy and would lead to poverty and social decay. For 12 years we have sounded the alert that 22 years of one-party rule by Democrats would eventually corrupt."

But as Carla Axtman of BlueOregon points out, that last sentence is a little off the mark:

"I almost hate to rain on Bridget's parade while she's still in the first stages of grief, but I'll do it anyway. Oregon's legislature has been very recently in Republican control. The Oregon House found the Republicans in the majority from 1990-2006 (16 years of the last 22 years). They had the Senate from 1995-2003. I may not be a genius, but basic math says that the whole 'one-party rule' thing isn't the way Bridget would like to paint it."