Tools of the Internet Merged With the Nationalist Right

Twitter was born March 21, 2006 when founder Jack Dorsey sent his first Tweet: “Just setting up my twttr.” Akin to Alexander Graham Bell’s March 10, 1876 call to associate: “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you.” Tweets and retweets now reach hundreds of millions.

Ahead of Twitter by two years was Facebook, founded on February 4, 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin from their Harvard dorms. It became the foundational platform for social media in the 21st century.

Social media, with its tailored, direct connection to individual users, has become the primary tool for creation of a nationalist movement with content, inspiration and talent from the late radio jock Rush Limbaugh (becoming national July 1988, a year after the Fairness Doctrine was repealed and between the two national presidential nominating conventions) and Fox News as it became the right side of cable news launched on October 7, 1996 with Roger Ailes, conservative political consultant, as CEO.