"The Republican party isn't exactly Internet savvy"

Bloguette Meghan McCain had an interesting article in the Daily Beast yesterday that addresses the techless nature of the GOP.

During the campaign season the only youth outreach I could find coming out of the McCain campaign was Meghan and her friends that traveled with the campaign and reported on the goings on.

Since this seems to be the week of children of the GOP coming out to tell all it is fitting Meghan wanted to talk about her experience as well. She says that the whole idea of the blog and project about being on the trail "was met with confusion and resistance" to begin with. "A few people even asked me what's a blog."

For the record, what you're reading right now.... is a blog.

She also said that she got the idea that people thought she was wasting her time, "The Republican party isn't exactly Internet savvy," she says.

I would argue that there are many people in the GOP that are very tech savvy. The College Republicans developed a nice little social network site that no one really uses, if you're a frequent reader of FM you know we know all about that site. And there are a hand full of remarkable tech savvy guys (sadly they're all men) who do some good work for a party that has little to no support for them. Meghan's lament isn't an isolated one.

"Unless the GOP evolves as the party that can successfully utilize the Web, we'll continue to lose influence. I think nothing confirms this fact to be more true than this recent election. I don’t claim to be an expert on mobilizing voters, but a significant number of the readers on mccainblogette.com, my blog, were between the ages of 18 and 30, a key demographic that either party would want. Many of the established Republican strategists told me that young people would not visit my web site."

So, Meghan started calling around asking people about the kind of outreach that happened online from the GOP to see what people's opinions were. Her findings?

"Instead, they told me that not having enough money was a huge factor in our loss—not our misuse of the Internet. Others were just plain angry, blaming the liberal media, and not the party's shortcomings online. Of course, there is truth in some of this. But denial only amplifies the stereotypes about Republicans being disconnected."

I live in the heartland, Meghan... I feel you're pain. No one here really gets the internet either. They think we're liberal because we blog - gotta love it! Her friend Rob Kubasko who helped develop mccainblogette.com tells her that it isn't the technology so much as having a message driven system that I guess includes the technology. He goes on to say that people want to be on Twitter because its cool but their tweets are lame making them part of the disconnect not the solution.

Another friend Becky Donatelli says that more and more people are getting their news from the Daily Show and SNL and spending the day on their Blackberry and laptops. She says that old school political operatives are aggravated by this (I agree but don't isolate it to the GOP) but it makes you wonder if these operatives are just choosing not to evolve simply because they don't like what the alternative is: Uncontrolled renegades unbridled by strategy and message campaigns wildly submitting whatever their thoughts online for the world to see.

Sounds like a party!

Meghan says "Until the Republican party joins the twenty-first century and learns how to use the Internet, its members will keep getting older and the youth of America will just keep logging on to the other side."

I would argue that technology is a big part of this because its where we spend our time, but I think having a message, political philosophy, and strong outreach in person as well as online is key to capturing the youth of America. That was the problem with STORM - its not enough to know that youth are on SN's its about knowing them well enough to understand where they are