Reagan slams webmail providers for liberal bias

The adopted son of former US President Ronald Reagan has taken to Fox News to remind American conservatives that when they use free email services they are helping the liberals win.

In an editorial published on the right-leaning news website on Wednesday, Michael Reagan, a radio host and Republican strategist, reminds Americans that a free email address – much like freedom itself – isn't free:

Companies like Yahoo, Google and Microsoft make a fortune selling all sorts of sensitive customer data to all kinds of companies that want to sell every imaginable good or service.

When a customer signs up for a free e-mail account and gives permission for their information to be sold, the proceeds of those transactions are often used to support the liberal political agenda of those companies and its executives.

Reagan cites statistics from the Center for Responsible Politics' OpenSecrets.org website, which he says demonstrate a clear liberal bias among companies in the tech sector.

So far, Google employees have raised more than $263,000 for Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign, Reagan says, and Microsoft employees have chipped in another $363,000.

Meanwhile, those same tech titans' employees have contributed just $87,000 to the campaign of Obama  challenger Mitt Romney, all told.

Tech execs are equally likely to lob big sums at liberal candidates, Reagan says. New Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer and her "rich friends" have raised between $100,000 and $200,000 for Obama's campaign, he claims, following in the footsteps of Yahoo! co-founder and former CEO Jerry Yang, who gave $30,400 to the Democratic Senatorial Committee in 2012.

Even when these companies do contribute funds to conservative groups, Reagan says, they do so with far smaller donations than the ones they pour into the "extreme" liberal opposition.

But Republicans need to email pictures of Lolcats and videos of men getting slugged in the groin just like anyone else. What's a hard-right internet idler to do, if all the major webmail providers are off limits?

Fear not. Reagan says he has the answer. Since 2010, Reagan's company The Reagan Group has flogged Reagan.com, a webmail service that it claims is private, anonymous, and secure. And best of all, it gives you an email addy with the Gipper's name in it.

When you sign up for a Reagan.com email address, the company "will not copy, scan, or sell a single word of your email content," its website says, although exclusive events, newsletters, news and commentary, and merchandise are listed as coming soon.

"Today, the political system is obsessed with money: who has it, who can get it and how fast," Reagan writes. "Conservatives need to reevaluate where they are allowing money to be contributed."

To that end – and because a true Republican would never accept handouts – a Reagan.com email address will set you back $40 per year. ®