Jose Antonio Vargas has an article at The Washington Post website about the Republican and Democrat parties and their use of the internet. He argues that Republicans are loosing the internet race, citing that Democrat websites have far more hits, and that Democrat presidential candidate profiles on MySpace and Facebook have more friends that their Republican counterparts. He offers a couple of reasons why.
Here is one portion that struck me:
I don't really buy the part about Republicans being more of a top-down party than the Democrats. In Congress, Democrats appear to have much stronger party discipline than Republicans do. Conservative bloggers, columnists, and radio hosts have criticized President Bush and members of Congress about spending, No Child Left Behind, etc, while their liberal equivalents have criticized Democrats for not being anti-war enough, etc.One reason for the disparity between the parties, political insiders say, is that the top Republican candidates are not exciting voters the way the Democratic front-runners are. Another is that it takes a certain level of technical skill and understanding to be an online strategist, and Republicans admit that "the pool of talent in the Democrats' side is much bigger than ours."
But an underlying cause may be the nature of the Republican Party and its traditional discipline -- the antithesis of the often chaotic, bottom-up, user-generated atmosphere of the Internet.
"We've always been a party of staying on message," All said. "It's the Rush Limbaugh model. What Tony Snow says in the White House filters down to talk radio, which makes its way to the blogs."
Peter Leyden, director of the New Politics Institute, a San Francisco-based think tank that in recent months has been advising Democratic members of Congress and their staffs on how to take full advantage of the Web, argues that the culture of Democrats is a much better fit in the Internet world.
"What was once seen as a liability for Democrats and progressives in the past -- they couldn't get 20 people to agree to the same thing, they could never finish anything, they couldn't stay on message -- is now an asset," Leyden said. "All this talking and discussing and fighting energizes everyone, involves everyone, and gets people totally into it."
Towards the end of the article, Vargas hints again at why Republicans lag behind:
One thing not covered here that I think is important is that the Republican and Democrat parties operate differently and have different organizations. They operate towards different constituencies, so it would be stupid to expect both parties to operate, and use the internet, in the exact same way. The author also errs in making the article about the parties and candidates, and then start discussing things such as The Daily Kos. Blogs, even though they work to influence voters and elected officials, fall under the category of ideas/positions, and not party."But look at the short history of online politics," Glover said. "For Republicans, the Internet is where bad things happen. Take [former U.S. senator] George Allen and his 'macaca' moment. . . . You can kind of understand why Republicans have this almost instinctive fear of the Internet, where the mob rules."
Turk, who led the RNC's e-campaign shop after serving as Bush's online chief, is revamping the lackluster ABC PAC. Turk, who was deputy director of the New Mexico GOP in the 1990s, helped build the fundraising site last spring, months after leaving the RNC, which he found "too bureaucratic" and "not at all conducive to a lot of cutting-edge, creative, outside-the-box thinking."
He's equally critical of the Internet strategy of his party's presidential candidates. "Yes," he said, "they've all got Web sites. Yes, they're doing videos. Yes, some are blogging. But that's not enough to really connect with voters," said Turk, who now works as vice president of industry grass roots at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.
Even so, there are some good points in the article. Anytime you find something that works, you are hesitant to make any changes. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" as they saying goes. Talk radio, magazines such as National Review, Fox News, and so on, has done a lot for Conservatives and the Republican party. And you can't let that stop you from taking the internet seriously. More and more people are getting their news, shopping, trading stocks, etc, online and that will continue to expand.
But when you think along the lines of "Conservative vs. Liberal," I don't think that conservatives are really that far behind. National Review and The Weekly Standard post new articles on their websites daily, and offer a digital version of their magazine available on their website. Whereas not long ago the only place you could find opinion pieces only in your newspaper or magazines you subscribed too, now a whole host of websites, such as Townhall.com, Opinionjournal.com, and American Thinker offer opinion pieces on a whole host of subjects. Blogs, such as Captain's Quarters, Powerline, Little Green Footballs, State 29, Caucus Cooler, the former Krusty Konservative, and so on, do the same thing. Radio shows such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, etc offer online streaming of their shows as well as downloadable podcasts. The Heritage Foundation, The Cato Institute, AEI, and other conservative think tanks publish their research and articles on their website with easy to use search and browse feature. We may not have something on the lines of The Daily Kos in terms of giant Republican/Conservative message boards, we are getting our message out.
--------------------------------
Stay Awake
Pay Attention
Always Vote
No comments:
Post a Comment