Young Republicans Try to Catch Up Online as Obama Races Ahead

2008 made one thing clear: if allowed to go unchecked, the Democrats' structural advantages, including their use of the Internet, their more than 2-to-1 advantage with young voters, their discovery of a better grassroots model -- will be as big a threat to the future of the GOP as the toxic political environment we have faced the last few years.

The time is now to set in motion the changes needed to rebuild our party from the grassroots up, modernize the way we run campaigns, and attract different, energetic, and younger candidates at all levels.

We must be conservative in philosophy -- but bold in our approach. We don't need a slight tweak here or there. We need transformation. We can't keep fighting a 21st century war with 20th century weapons.

Meanwhile, as Republicans play "catch up," Barack Obama is looking to take the online tools - and the huge netroots army of supporters - his campaign built in order to become the "first truly 'wired' presidency" in U.S. history.

Just as John F. Kennedy mastered television as a medium for taking his message to the public, Obama is poised to transform the art of political communication once again, said Joe Trippi, a Democratic strategist who first helped integrate the Internet into campaigning four years ago.

"He's going to be the first president to be connected in this way, directly, with millions of Americans," Trippi said.

The nucleus of that effort is an e-mail database of more than 10 million supporters. The list is considered so valuable that the Obama camp briefly offered it as collateral during a cash-flow crunch late in the campaign, though it wound up never needing the loan, senior aides said. At least 3.1 million people on the list donated money to Obama.

Millions more made up the volunteer corps that organized his enormous rallies, registered millions of voters and held countless gatherings to plug the senator to friends and neighbors. On Election Day, they served as the backbone of Obama's get-out-the-vote operation, reaching voters by phone and at the front door, serving coffee at polling stations and babysitting so parents could stand in line at voting precincts.

This is exciting stuff, taking the "Netroots Rising" to another - much higher - level than we saw in the Webb campaign (let alone the Dean, Clark or Kerry campaigns).  Of course, everything comes with potential downside along with the upside. As Peter Daou points out, "People who have helped you reach this historic goal by self-organizing can also organize in opposition to your policies."  

That's true for Democrats, and it's also true for Republicans. For instance, what happens to Republicans if - as the "Rebuild the Party" people point out, "a small and energized base of Ron Paul supporters [succeed] in taking over many local party organizations?" Is this the direction they want their party to go?  Same thing with Barack Obama: let's just say that he doesn't pull troops out of Iraq fast enough to satisfy the anti-war left, will they rebel?  

Still, I'm a big believer that the benefits of netroots organizing far outweigh the potential risks, disadvantages, etc. As Jon Henke et al. point out, you "can't keep fighting a 21st century war with 20th century weapons," and the political "weapon" of the early 21st century is the internet, for better or for worse.

Comments