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A different view on the left versus right online debate

Submitted by Soren Dayton on Wed, 07/23/2008 - 14:49
in

In the regular debate about about how the right can catch up online, several points are often missed. The first is that the left has developed a movement based on the interconnectedness of people inside the movement. People get recruited, energized, and leveraged. This may or may not be as much a function of larger demographic and political trends, as it has something to do with the netroots specifically.

At the same time, the right has often been better at campaign mechanics, especially in recent years. Our assumption seems to be that if we get enough people to go and vote in this country -- which we still believe is just right of center -- then we can win. If McCain wins, it will probably be because his ideas are basically in line with a just-right-of-center country, while Obama's may not be.

In recent years, our political-technological innovations have focused on turning out normal people at unbelievable levels. In that context, I want to highlight something from Jose Antonio Vargas hints at this in his piece on Cyrus Krohn and the RNC:

[...] Then-Rep. Bobby Jindal was an attractive candidate, Krohn says, and it was projected to be a tight race. For 3 1/2 months, using online micro-targeting and data-matching, he identified a set of voters and turned them out to the polls.

Statewide turnout for the Louisiana race was 46 percent. Of those voters who interacted with Krohn's online targeting -- he won't say how much of the total vote -- 76 percent voted, he claims. Krohn says he's not suggesting that the RNC is responsible for Jindal's win. What it does suggest, however, is that the model could have significant impact on voter turnout, he adds.

Technology should lower the costs of things that campaigns already do, and those lowered costs should allow new ideas and techniques. The 72-hour program massively increased the efficiency of the GOP's GOTV efforts, at the same time that the RNC and Bush-Cheney got better at recruiting more volunteers to do those things.

The Louisiana story makes clear that we likely still have significant advantages here. Our GOTV is almost certainly tremendously more efficient, helped by the things that Cyrus is working on, existing technologies like 72-hour, and non-electoral technology developments. These efficiencies will allow us to stretch our precious GOTV dollars and volunteer time by deploying them where they make the most incremental difference in actually delivering the next vote.

If this ends up being a close election, or a very close election, it is going to come down to electoral technology. Maybe it will be ACORN crashing the rolls and delivering illegal voters. Maybe it will be Cyrus massively increasing turnout and optimizing our GOTV through what he is doing. Maybe it will be just that they recruit and register and vote more people than we do, or vice versa. But my hunch is that if we win a nail-biter, what Cyrus is doing will deserve a big chunk of the credit.

I don't want to downplay what the left is doing at all. We clearly are not competing with them in this space. Social media should give us more opportunities to communicate with voters and future voters alike. And we should be able to exploit the efficiencies and new modes of communication to better organize people.

But in some places, we are doing very, very well. And Jose's story on Cyrus should make that clear.

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Comments

Beyond 'Ahead' or "Behind"

Submitted by Freedoms Truth on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 00:39.

Good article and comment. It peels back a layer Beyond 'Ahead' or "Behind" and shows some of the good stuff at RNC.

That the RNC is doing it is good, and begs a question: A great leverage point of online activity is that if you build the platform, you can cheaply extend it. So why not extend these platforms to every state party and support state and local candidates? I hope the RNC is thinking in these terms - building platforms and not merely making a few quick hit gimmick sites for this cycle.

The next layer to peel is to ask/answer the questions:

- Where are we ahead?  What are they (left/Dems) doing that we not doing?

What works? What doesn't? what defines 'victory'?

 

 

polls

Submitted by chris m on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 02:20.

How are we going to keep the TERRORISTS from VOTING?!!!!

left versus right onlne

Submitted by Hal5000 on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 08:41.

I'm worried about the terrorists, too.  They can hack into our computers and use them to publish liberal malarkey and terrorist instructions on how to vote illegally.  We have to defeat the terrorists so we can prevent another 9/11.   We need to pay more attention to the war in Iraq.  That's where  Osama bin Laden said the terrorist are.

Run for your lives

Submitted by gunthestops on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 09:21.

YES, these terrorist are so crafty they could be masquerading as republican Neo-cons and could already be in place as at the highest levels of our government destroying us from inside. What will McConfusion  do??????????????????????????

The big picture - beyond the Oval Office

Submitted by DC Rogue on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 09:53.

Very valid and very important points, however, highly mobilized and targeted new media efforts are more CRUCIAL then ever when we look at races beyond the White House, more important in the local races than campaign mechanics, thanks to the PR machine that is the Democratic party. 

The GOP is essentially dead in Congress.  As you mention, the right has been a campaign machine and we owe much of our success during the last decade to Karl Rove, however.......since the Dems took control in 2006, we have spent the last 2 yrs hearing about one scandal after another with GOPers in the House and Senate dropping like flies - and you know what, we deserve it.  The party has lost touch with the base, with swing voters, and with the average American in general.  Again, you're right, the average Joe is right of center - but we aren't getting to him anymore, not in the state and local races. 

The RNC does not have a grip on the state Republican parties who are doing way more harm than good these days (the 2006 slaughter is a perfect example)........and the money-makers and financiers of the GOP are not even coming close to recruiting and funding the right bloggers, reporters, etc. etc. etc. etc.....and undoubtedly, the Next Right is sadly I'm sure not receiving the attention or credit it deserves.

If the GOP would stop being so clicky and start placing some value in passion, like the opposition, this new media revolution wouldn't seem like such a chore for us.

Way too many content-free generalizations here

Submitted by Freedoms Truth on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 13:55.

Can you go one point at a time and justify it?

Like "The GOP is essentially dead in Congress. " What does this mean and give us data to justify the statement.  It sounds like nonsense to me, the GOP in Congress is alive and kicking on many issues.

 

Where the Left has excelled

Submitted by Lightfinger on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 10:14.

Where the Left has excelled is in motivation of their base, getting information to them (right or wrong), etc.

It is simple communications that becomes the issue, and why the Left is perceived as being ahead of the game. However, I feel the Left is not doing any persuading of the undecideds with the way they are focusing their efforts.

Meanwhile, the Republican Party has made inroads into persuading undecideds in my perception of things. But they are doing this independently from those of us on the Right, and thus helping to foster the growing divide we are seeing between conservatism and the Republican Party. The communication lines between the Right and the Republican Party are poor, at best, again in my opinion.

Where we need to come in, with being The Next Right, is to develop those communications benefits currently enjoyed by the Left, as well as aiding the Republican Party with their GOTV efforts. We're already making vast strides in this area. Since getting on Twitter, Facebook, etc. and being active, I know I'm making progress communicating with people like Soren and Patrick. A whole world of possibilities are opening up to myself, and I know I'm not the only one. However, we are still newcomers, and there are a whole lot of people who do not know about The Next Right, or other communications and forum sites like even Free Republic. It is key to reach out to these folks and get things pushed forward.

We have to provide the passion, that will push the GOP into becoming more passionate. As we become organized and more of a benefit, the cliquish attitudes of certain GOP members will break down and we'll get farther along the path we must take.

FreeRepublic is over 12 years old!

Submitted by Freedoms Truth on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 13:52.

It's been around forever.

In fact, it was doing the "Digg" type thing 10 years before Digg!

The difference though is it is "1.0". You have to go there to add the content.

I am all for more open platforms. I wish I could crosspost somehow between FR, Redstate, here and my blog. Why can I only say it one place, with its own format and peculiarities?

Technology - Platforms - Content/Ideas - Community

These are all different layers that all have to be addressed to get the 'full' solution.

 

passion's blockade

Submitted by DC Rogue on Fri, 07/25/2008 - 09:19.

Lightfinger I agree with you wholeheartidly, we need to provide the passion, however I believe that there has been a huge wall within the GOP for awhile, resistant to responding to that passion.  I think the passion has been building for a longtime, but it's been ignored.  The challenge now is to completely tear down that wall....unfortunately major defeats in 2006 and a dismal outlook for this November (certainly in Congressional races), and a refusal to completely restructure and reorganize the NRCC and NRSC, I'm not hopeful the party is yet ready to let go of the antiquity.

In the face of defeat...

Submitted by davidfarrar on Fri, 07/25/2008 - 09:37.

...the NRCC and the NRSC should have a far better reason to bring about change than with overwhelming victories; I would think.

You speak of passion. Passion is never felt so much as when you loose something you value. Wait for it. The passion is coming.

ex animo

davidfarrar

...  the left has developed a

Submitted by davids on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 11:21.

...  the left has developed a movement based on the interconnectedness of people inside the movement. People get recruited, energized, and leveraged. This may or may not be as much a function of larger demographic and political trends, as it has something to do with the netroots specifically.

After reading this I am much less concerned about the "online gap" than I had been. McCain is not an exciting canddate, particularly for the right's activist base. These are the people on our side who (loosely, and much more sanely) correspond to the left's netroots. People are not going to get "recruited, energized, and leveraged" for a candidate whom they see only as the lesser of two evils (and, yes, I've sent McCain money, yes I'm going to work for his campaign, and yes, I'm going tohold my nose and vote for him, not because I have any enthusiasm for him, but because I think that Obama would be a catastrophe as president).

I have little doubt that the right's net presence will be as powerful as the left's when there is a candidate to be excited about