Change the Incentives
by Patrick Ruffini :: August 1st, 2007 11:55 pmThe New York Times explores the emergence of the new pro-online engagement wing of the Republican Party in the wake of the near-collapse of first Internet-driven GOP debate. I’m quoted in it.
If we succeed in doing anything, I hope it’s to permanently change the incentives for our candidates to engage online. Republican political types tend to harbor the belief that the Web is somehow riskier than other forms of media. That’s only true if you disrespect it. Engaging the medium immunizes you. Why? Because it’s a lot harder to take down a large and active community than it is a fledgling, tightly controlled one. Big communities know how to defend themselves (that’s what this week was and is). Our nominee will be better off with the coat of armor that is a huge self-organizing online community that gives money and repels attacks.
In the last week, we’ve shown that there is a big online constituency that’s just waiting to hear from the GOP candidates if they’re just willing to sit down and talk to it. We’ve shown that online influentials care about the level of online activity from our candidates, and can effectively lobby for more. We’ve shown that the incentives are all on the side of a forward-leaning approach to the medium.
This is also about spying the danger down the road and working to prevent the train wreck many of us see coming. Of course Jon Henke is right when he says,
“Politics in America are very cyclical, and the left is on the upswing,” he said. “Elect President Hillary Clinton and you’ll see a much stronger Rightosphere as the right gradually finds leadership and develops the tools to deal with their grievances.”
For all my harping on this, I’d still rather see a Republican President than a dominant Republican online movement. I don’t want to be like Kos — angry and powerless. But is it a pipedream to suggest we can’t have both? That Republicans can’t recognize the extreme danger we are in, and turn to the online community in a bold attempt to accomplish the impossible in 2008?
I also think that Jon and others who make this argument underestimate the huge store of knowledge and manpower that has been built up on the Left; it won’t go away just because a Democrat is President. (Our Conservative friends to the north in Canada are still well ahead online and have been in power for nearly two years.) As Colin Delany writes,
Thinking ahead past 2008, this staffing inequity could have serious long-term effects. When you look at the progressive/Dem online politics world, veterans of the 2004 Dean and Kerry campaigns are hard to miss. Joe Trippi, of course, but also Zephyr Teachout, Zack Exley and the Blue State Digital folks. Ditto for EchoDitto, and I’m sure for quite a few others. These people are helping campaigns NOW and also training a whole new cohort of online activists for 2010, 2012 and beyond. Each skilled web person has a potential multiplier effect, as he or she moves on to other campaigns or into the advocacy world. (emphasis added)
In other words, we can’t risk waiting until Hillary is President. We need to get started now, training people and putting them in the field for 2008. In any event, I am glad we are having this conversation now, and not next April 15, the first post-primary FEC filing deadline, when it may become painfully apparent what these top-down strategies have wrought.
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