The GOP's Internet Insurgents
Washington Dispatch: Republican techies are rising up against a party that can't reboot.
November 20, 2008
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With the GOP in tatters after heavy electoral losses, there is a lot of grumbling going on inside Republican circles. The criticisms are many and, at times, contradictory: The party has grown too tight with the social conservative base and must moderate to have broader appeal; it has lost touch with its conservative roots; it is clueless about the needs of working men and women.
Amid all the griping, a handful of tech-savvy Republicans are saying that the real problem isn't principle or politics; it's hardware. The GOP, they complain, is a complete dud when it comes to the Internet and using the tools of a 21st-century campaign. These activists, generally younger than party leadership, are peeved that Barack Obama leveraged the Internet for unprecedented organizing and fundraising success while the Republican Party did nothing to keep pace. Within the Republican National Committee, says Michael Turk, a GOP Web strategist, "There is a view of the Internet as the 'other.'" Turk left his post as the RNC's eCampaign Director in 2005 out of frustration with the GOP's inability to adapt. "I feel like I've been having the same arguments for 15 years," he says.
A frustrated Turk cites what he calls a "perfect example" of the GOP's institutional misunderstanding of how the Web works. When he was at the RNC, he helped start a series of Web videos called "Mindy and Katie Off the Record." It featured two young female staffers chatting informally with prominent Republican figures about musical tastes, personal stories, and so on. Every time a new episode came out, the RNC would notify its email list. "We were getting better open rates"—that is, more recipients were opening the emails—"than stuff we were sending from the president," says Turk. "They were hugely successfully. But they were hugely successful online, which meant they weren't hugely successful in the 'real world,' according to some people" at the RNC.
One day, ABC's online political bulletin The Note wrote a post called "What Do Mindy and Katie Think of Iran's Nuclear Capability?" It teased Mindy and Katie for their softball questions. Turk was summoned to explain to top staff why he had put the RNC in a position to be mocked by the media. Turk argued that the media coverage was a positive. As Turk puts it, people were finally starting to say, "Wow, these guys are doing something we haven't seen before, especially out of the RNC." The brass didn't buy it. They decided to go with a revamped scripted format that used a former TV anchor delivering something resembling an all-GOP newscast.
Turk told RNC officials they were "completely missing the medium." He was quickly proven right. The new format lasted just a few shows. "They were abject failures," says Turk. "Nobody watched them. Nobody passed them around. There was no interest in them at all. It became very much a propaganda sort of film."
Turk left the RNC because of episodes like this. Today, he is working with a coalition of Web-oriented Republican activists that has started an initiative called Rebuild the Party. The group's overarching goal is to change the GOP's endemic Ludditism. Its website lays out a platform calling for the GOP to fully utilize the new technological tools that have vastly improved the arts of political organizing, fundraising, and campaigning. "Winning the technology war with the Democrats must be the RNC's No. 1 priority in the next four years," the group says. "The Republican Party can no longer survive in a modern era if we resist this new reality."
Why is the GOP on the losing side of a technology gap? There is one obvious reason: Losers need innovation more than winners. "We are a victim of our success," says Matt Lewis, a blogger for the conservative website TownHall.com and a member of the Rebuild the Party coalition. "When you're winning elections, you don't start looking around for innovative, transformative ideas. You stick to what works. And up until 2006, the Republican Party had been rewarded for sticking to what works. But the liberals who had been defeated many times were searching for something new, and they found it."
It was a long search, stretching from MoveOn.org to Howard Dean's presidential campaign and finally to the Obama Web team. Lewis is hoping GOP leaders, duly humbled by their party's showing in the last election, will realize they have no choice but to initiate a similar process. "Sometimes," he says, "you have to hit rock bottom."
And after hitting rock bottom, sometimes there is a bounce. Scott Graves, editor in chief of the conservative blog Red County and a Rebuild the Party member, notes that conservative Internet activists mobilized quickly after the Republican defeat. "There were probably two dozen very legitimate, well-respected sites and initiatives that cropped up overnight [after the election]," he says, adding, "I think it is time for Republicans to experience a period of wandering the wilderness and rediscovering what they stand for. And then, after they figure that out, identifying who can communicate it." He says the old, Internet-free way of doing business in the GOP won't cut it any longer. "All these lions of the conservative movement getting together for a meeting or a conference call, that's not a winning strategy. That's just not how it's going to work anymore."
Change within the Republican Party's national apparatus may not come easy. "The GOP tends to look at things like infrastructure in two-year spurts," says Turk, who was the Bush/Cheney eCampaign Director in 2004 before taking the top Internet post at the RNC. "After '04, I went to the RNC to take what we had built for the [Bush reelection] campaign and make that a permanent architecture, to bring the whole concept of social networks and online activism over to the RNC. I fought that battle for a little over a year, and it got to the point where it just wasn't getting through."
He held many conversations with establishment Republicans, and over and over they said the same thing to him: "Nobody has ever won because of the Internet." Turk's standard reply was that Virginia Sen. George Allen's loss was widely attributed to the infamous "macaca" video, and that Montana Sen. Conrad Burns lost his seat in part because of widely circulated footage of him snoozing in the Senate. "If they lost because of the Internet, somebody won because of it," Turk says.
The RNC's leaders haven't run off to a dark room to hide under the covers. "We are fully committed to using new media and the Internet to interact with Americans on substantive issues," says Cyrus Krohn, the RNC's current eCampaign Director. Recently, the RNC launched a Web initiative called Republican for a Reason, which allows rank-and-file Republicans from around the country to submit text or video messages explaining why they belong to the party and "what [they] would like to see the party focus on and address in the coming weeks and months."
Turk calls Republican for a Reason a "token measure" that is a "way for them to say they're being interactive when they're really not." The site allows users to discuss issues with each other if they sign up for an account, but there is no mechanism for communicating with party leadership. "This is exactly the problem a lot of us have with the GOP. It's all very one-way," Turk says. "It provides the illusion of being two-way, in the sense, 'Hey we're going to give you the ability to submit a message to us.' But that's it. 'We're not going to give you any ability to continue the conversation. You've said your piece, we can say we've listened, and now you'll go about your business.'"
The Rebuild the Party activists recognize that if the Republican Party goes about its business, disappointing election days like November 4 will become a regular occurrence, and the GOP will drive itself into a permanent technophobic minority.
Correction: This story originally claimed that the Republican for a Reason website does not include a discussion function. The function does exist. Users must sign up for an account in order to access it.Jonathan Stein is a reporter in Mother Jones' Washington, DC, bureau.
It is not just a technology gap.
It is a combination of the three and undoubtedly more unnamed issues.
The Reps provide no reason by actions that they are different or better anymore.
The Reps no longer represent their party’s traditions and have alienated their constituents.
The Reps need to get back to conservatism by ACTIONS and they need to adapt some libertarian views and ACT accordingly.
No longer can they merely speak the word and fail to ACT on the word. Mere lip service is no longer acceptable.
experiences. If they couldn't find another candidate to compete I would sit this election out.
In this day and age, you have to have a candudate who is photogenic and a great orator
If you're black, we want you to vote for us, but not so much that we'll stop purging you for registration rolls and challenging you at the polls.
If you're Hispanic, we want your vote, but not so much that we'll stop using immigration to energize our nativist base that hates you.
If you're gay, we want your vote, but not enough to treat you like an equal human being.
If you're Muslim, we want your vote, but not enough to stop playing to the hatred of you in our Christian base.
If you're secular, we want your vote, but see the Muslim problem above.
If you're urban, we want your vote, but not enough to stop describing you as immoral tenement dwellers out of touch with the values of Real America.
If you're poor, we want your vote, but not enough to address the problems that keep you poor.
If you're a union worker or want to be, we want your vote, but not enough to protect the right to organize.
I'm glad the GOP got unseated, and I hope they stay that way. On issues like energy, they have been flat-out dishonest for years, it's time for the US to innovate, here, and get oil-independent. And, the only way we're going to get there is if Exxon moves OUT of the White House. The dems aren't perfect, they tend to be more liberal, of the 'give the world a big cookie, and make it all better' variety, which I don't hold with because I think no small amount of so-called 'foreign aid' is just another dirty little self-perpetuating racket, and frankly I think that the only time the People are well-served is when all policies and spending by government, either state or federal, are 'scrubbed' by public review and critique, basically starting from the general standpoint of assuming, more or less, that someone's trying to put one over on us, and consenting to whatever ONLY after having exhausted any/all possible reasons for denial/disapproval. Because, if we don't, we're going to end up another 1,2,5 trillion 'in the hole', with people in foreign countries having more effective control and authority over our country than we do as citizens. Selling the United States to the highest bidder does not promote or support our continued independence. And, democrat, or republican, whatever, that independence should be important to you regardless. Energy independence is a great first place to start, there.
Conservative means slow to take on new technology. Slow to take on new ideas (or ideas in general as David Brooks said.) Slow to admit the depths of their issues.
I predict the GOP will coontinue alienating themselves by shedding RINOs, Cathholics, any remaining moderates and hence keep losing through the next two/three election cycles.
Republicans have computerized a different way.
See '06 book "One Party Country: The Republican Party Plan for Dominance" by LA Times reporters Wallsten & Hamburger.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion /commentary/la-op-hamburger25jun25,1,3293272.story
It doesn't matter all that much how much "sizzle" you put on the packaging when the contents are stale bull[deleted]. There's just not that much market for it, and once people have opened the package once, they're not likely to do it again.
As Molly put it, the only good thing about Shrub is that he's managed to put another generation off of voting for Republicans.
Which, when you think about it, is more redeeming quality than most R's have shown lately.
As others have said, it's not the technology, it's the message. Until the GOP divorces itself from, or at least adopts an arm's length relationship with the fundamentalist Christians, this is what they can expect.
This relationship has led them into an Us or Them mentality and it has nothing whatsoever to do with conservatism. The GOP needs to get out of the religiosity and morality business and get back to the business of running their share of the government in a Constitutional manner.
If the bible thumping members of the GOP wish to encourage their brand of morality, then they should do so from the pulpit and quit trying to legislate it. The thinking literate among the party won't stand for it, and the illiterate masses are fickle and will chase whomever offers them the shiniest bauble.
The GOP needs to wake up. Another round of elections like this one and the Libertarian Party will be nipping at their heels. Perhaps this is what is needed anyway. The Grand Old Prudes party has run its course and maybe it's time to put them out to pasture and let someone new represent the conservative approach to governance.
've all seen the results of "Trickle down economics" or VooDoo economics, Reaganomics or whatever you want to call making the rich richer.
Stand by for Obamanomics!
How about the CHANGE? Shouted from the rooftops of the USA and around the world, Change, USA needs change. That was the promise, that was the theme song. So what change has Obama put on the table? Emanuuel, Holder and Hillary? All long time political hacks, lobbyists, and crooks. Emanual, head of Freddie when books were cooked=today's financial mess, Lobbyist-income of $16 million,Holder who approved pardon of FLAN bombing terrorists while in Justice Dept.and so on. Change-where and when. Who has Obama picked so far to work with who is not from 1992 Clinton days? This is the promised change?? Aylers the next head of the Dept of Education? Maybe even Soros as Sectary of the Treasury. Obama promises called empty words amnd he is proving it every day. PS-Is Obama still getting the troops home by 3/09? Or is he sending Iraq troops to Afgan for his troop surge in Afgan.
What can they do with a mindset that will always fall flat? Change it? It would never come off as genuine. They're finished.
We lost this election because we could not or did not, clearly offer solutions to the issues the public thought essential. Face it, our man had no effective answers and clearly floundered when it came to the specifics.
Second, we made little or no effort to reach out to the youth...Reagan went after the young voters and Obama did the same...both realized much success.
Some suggestions to the RNC...
1. Clearly identify what the GOP intends to accomplish. Answer the following question: Why should an 18 year old become a Republican? What can we offer them as life-long Republicans?
2. Make out of pocket college tuition tax deductible. Concern for the working man struggling to educate is children is universally attractive and simultaneously our country will be better off for the effort. BTW more producive taxpayers is a good thing.
3. Clearly, the "same old sh*t" wasn't the answer on Nov 4th 2008 and you're kidding yourselves if you assume it will work next time. Determine who is our audience now and then determine who we need to add to our member base.
Hint...incorporate ethnicity in our demographic. The perception is the the GPO is a "whites only" organization. We'll need to embrace people of color and we'll have to address the issues that are fundamental to them in our platform. Not all people of of color are looking for handouts. Like most people they want the same chance our immigrant ancestors hoped/asked for. They want to make a living, raise their families and hopefully have a few bucks in the bank for when they get old.
4. At every level, identify candidates that will offer a broader appeal Vet them before hand. A GOP White House w/ a liberal Congress is worthless. Witness what Mr. Frank & friends got away with and the manner the GOP was blamed for it. We need to begin from the foundation...the grass roots level. Starting NOW would be a good idea.
5. Operate under the assumption that the media ARE whores and NOT our friends. I have NEVER seen such lopsided media spin in a national election and unless Obama steps in it big time, there is no reason to assume this will be reversed the next time.
6. Deliver what we promise. Perhaps the single, most effective element in our favor will be the current administration's failure to deliver the cosmic spectrum of promises they made. At the same time the GOP will need to avoid the same trap should they regain a Congressinal majority and the White House.
7. The internet makes the public's access to information (our message) accessable in ways previous generations could not appreciate. The next election will be won or lost on the Web.
8. The youth today believe the internet more than they believe traditional TV style news anchors. TV news anchors are seen as puppets controlled by large corporate machines (they're correct) and as such are not to be trusted. Plan on getting the word out via the Web and let the TV reporters go begging. Also the TV ads playing on the fears of the elderly were un-palletable and seen as a cheap effort to scare people.
K.I.S.S Keep It Simple Stupid...and leave the elderly alone.
9. Avoid being / looking vicious. Take the high road. Instead of calling the Democrats fools (already a given) in the TV media ads, tell the public where to find the facts - online. There you can let the facts speak for themselves (with party-line mixed in of course). Links to the Congressional Record w/ synopsis can be very powerful arguments as to why voting for the GOP is a better choice.
Some thoughts from an old man. If you made it this far, thanks for listening.
uncle sam/ruling class (2-5% of the pop) had always made 'special' rules for 'special' folk.
first, samuel made rules especially for indigenes.
and indigenes nearly vanished and r now in concetration camps (sans wires, of course)
the next folk to be a specialty was the blacks.
of course, the working class also obtained 'special' rules especially made fo it. and so on.
having split people into several classes, uncle sam cld rule w. iron fist.
he had said, For my good, ye shall lie; charge a customer any price u deem fit.
But theres no reason to believe that there will be a groundswell of social organizing amongst conservatives ala the block by block, city by city, community organizing model that Obama took from years of left-wing social movements. Unlike African-American churches, white evangelical churches have little to no history of organizing such things, and its doubtful they will all of a sudden "get it".
Even the Ron Pauliacs couldn't do anything more than simply pour money into their candidates coffers, which he then managed to blow on absolutely nothing. There was little to no real on the ground effort from Paul to win the primary, and like Perot, little to no institutional framework to channel the anger he tapped into.
I just don't see College Republicans picking up Saul Alinsky and Si Khan and hitting their hands on their forehead and saying "That's it!"
Republicans absconded with Populist rhetoric during the Reagan years, but in terms of policy aims, have NEVER had the "conservative credentials" with which they are credited. At no point has the Republican party had the best interests of the American blue-collar workers at the core of its philosophy. The only link between the GOP and Middle America is the fear of change and utter enthrallment with the status quo they both share. Progressive ideas need a little selling, but the fact of the matter is that they are intellectually and socially justifiable. Giving reasonable and logical arguments for inequality is rapidly becoming impossible in today's connected world. Could this spell an end to the Republican party?
Lack of tech savvy didn't help but the real reason the Repubs. lost is that they are mean and selfish. "Fool me once ..." ('00), "Fool me twice" ... ('04).
Mean, selfish, and stupid ... to think that paying HUGE salaries to CEO's will improve the lot of the little guy, those of us in the middle class who've been struggling to support or families and help our children and grandchildren to have a better life.
We've been lied to and cheated by the Republican Party.
Go ahead. Hone your high-tech skills. That won't help 'cause we're mad as hell and we're NOT going to take it any more.
The Internet has never been about message control and the Republican Party has and is all about message control. Their constituents demand and feed off of it in the form of Fox News, Talk Radio, etc.
Allowing small communities of Republicans to interact is going to cause small wounds to fester until an arm of the party is ill with gangrene. What could a community of rank and file republicans possibly talk about. Just look at a site like plnewsforum.com. The first sign of disagreement and the posters on the forum and gravely uncomfortable and indignant. At DKos, disagreements exist but talk continues and positions evolve.
What would evolving republicans positions look like? It will be moderation and centrist talk, which will only allow other parties (libertarian, progressive) to steal constituencies and allow remaining constituencies to cry murder and continue to argue the corrupting power of progressive thought and discussion.
The republican party is a business model that can't exist, much like the copper-based land lines of today.
The way i see it, the only think the party can do is stall the spread of the new media/ new mediums. But this is a fight that would have to have been started a while ago for current success.
This election is very simple. Eight years of Bush was way too much for most American, Democrat and Republican, conservative and liberal. Most R's and D's alike will admit that the Bush presidency was an unforgivable disaster. However, unfortunately for conservatives and Republicans, it was pegged as "our disaster". It really wasn't. The vast majority of the Bush decisions, the war, the economy, education, health care, etc., were because Bush did not have any philosophical moorings to base these decisions upon. The result was predictable. But I digress.
The American people were justifiably fed up with Bush and wanted change. McCain did not successfully present himself as the agent of change. He came across as being Bush's third term. In light of that it is amazing the he came as close as he did. Obama energized the youth vote because he was new and different. A basketball playing, blackberry carrying, interracial, intelligent, handsome hunk with a gorgeous wife and cute kids (and who could also complete a sentence, at least when using a tele-prompter) were the winning ticket. The voters didn't, and still don't, have any idea what his positions actually were in the campaign. For example, pollsters from both the D's and R's will tell you that Obama's position on abortion was agreed with by only 9% while 43% agreed with the McCain position! Could this be why the Obama campaign was silent on this issue except in two states where their polling said that they could pry away just enough women to win? In 48 states they didn't say a word about his position. These are their (the D's) comments not mine. Down the line, this is the case. And I draw these numbers from post election polls the D's conducted. If the vote had been based upon whether you agree with the candidate's position on the issues, McCain would have won in a landslide. But it wasn't about issues or technology, it was just about change.
This was not an election about where the American people want to take the country. It was a rejection of eight years of horror and an embracing of change, no matter what that change was about. As an American, I care much more about our country and our collective success than I do the GOP and its success. Therefore I wish Obama success. (I hope that he will remember that he was elected as a tax cutter an hold to that position.)
As we analyze the election results those old enough to remember will recall that it was not too long ago that we read articles asking the question, "can the Democrat party ever again win the White House or a majority in Congress". Now there are articles asking the same about the Republican party. The answer was, and is, "yes". This is the way our democracy works. The pendulum swings from one side to the other. The Democrats had their day in this past election. Adjustments will be made from the standpoint of technology and ideology and then the GOP will once again have its day. My projection is that the GOP will pick up 10 - 20 seats in the House and hold their own in the Senate in 2010.
palin 2012 palin 2012 palin 2012
Their successes over recent decades stem from their hammer-lock on media.
Obama's success came not because the internet is more effective than the existing media, but because it broke the conservative media hammer-lock.