A myth has grown based on the last election that the Left was somehow way ahead on the Internet, new media, etc. This is simply not true. In fact the Right was there first, long before the Left had an inkling about electronic technology. Conservative sites were established early on. In fact in 1996 Libertarian candidate Harry Brown actually won the Presidential poll of Internet users at the time.
What did happen was the Democrats were better organized, had far greater enthusiasm, and got more than two-thirds of the youth vote, for whom casting the ballot was almost a moral imperative after being brainwashed all their lives about “racism.” As a result it appeared as though new technology was at the core when in fact it was simply a case of those most likely to use it, i.e. younger voters, leaning one way. This was compounded by the entire celebrity-entertainment-popular culture, whom younger people are dumb enough to follow, leaning one way. In this light Obama’s Internet announcements were more gimmick than substance and didn’t move any votes.
Nevertheless the idea is out that the Right has to “catch up” to where it always has been. There is certainly no paucity of conservative sites, blogs, Twitter users, and organizations. In fact there are arguably too many chiefs and not enough Indians as new organizations are constantly popping up to “renew” “restore,” or otherwise transform the Republicans. However, the problem is far deeper. The brand has been decimated and may be beyond saving. Perhaps a new conservative party is the answer. After all there has been no real decline in the number of people who identify themselves as “conservative,” who are still more than double the number of self-identified “liberals,” and exceed even independents. “Republican” identity, on the other hand, has collapsed, with most of the loss going to independents. There is a real question as to whether the party label can be salvaged, barring catastrophic overreach by Obama and the Democrats, which is quite possible, but even then a lot of people returning to the Republican fold will only do so while holding their noses.
What did happen was the Democrats were better organized, had far greater enthusiasm, and got more than two-thirds of the youth vote, for whom casting the ballot was almost a moral imperative after being brainwashed all their lives about “racism.” As a result it appeared as though new technology was at the core when in fact it was simply a case of those most likely to use it, i.e. younger voters, leaning one way. This was compounded by the entire celebrity-entertainment-popular culture, whom younger people are dumb enough to follow, leaning one way. In this light Obama’s Internet announcements were more gimmick than substance and didn’t move any votes.
Nevertheless the idea is out that the Right has to “catch up” to where it always has been. There is certainly no paucity of conservative sites, blogs, Twitter users, and organizations. In fact there are arguably too many chiefs and not enough Indians as new organizations are constantly popping up to “renew” “restore,” or otherwise transform the Republicans. However, the problem is far deeper. The brand has been decimated and may be beyond saving. Perhaps a new conservative party is the answer. After all there has been no real decline in the number of people who identify themselves as “conservative,” who are still more than double the number of self-identified “liberals,” and exceed even independents. “Republican” identity, on the other hand, has collapsed, with most of the loss going to independents. There is a real question as to whether the party label can be salvaged, barring catastrophic overreach by Obama and the Democrats, which is quite possible, but even then a lot of people returning to the Republican fold will only do so while holding their noses.
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