STORM

You've got to love young conservatives. Stick them in front of a computer and hilarity ensues. Whether it's gangsta raps about Ayn Rand, or this latest missive from the College Republican National Committee (emphasis mine):

From: Zach Howell, College Republicans
Date: Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 1:49 PM
Subject: Closing STORM

One year and over 200,000 members later, I'm pleased to announce that STORM, the College Republican's social activism network has successfully served its purpose and has now been closed as scheduled.

STORM proved to be a successful utility to organize our membership, coordinate the Fall 2008 field program, and keep in communication with our 200,000 members.

You can rest assured that we'll continue to keep you in the loop on upcoming projects, as well as supply you with the tools you need to be an effective activist online and on campus.

In conjunction with the completion of STORM we surveyed nearly 2,000 College Republicans to better understand what drives YOU to connect online. Here's what you told us:

85% of survey respondents told us they're connected online at least four hours a day, with almost half saying they're “always” connected. For most, this includes using the Internet on a mobile device.

Almost 95% of College Republicans have accounts on Facebook, and a vast majority are active on multiple social networks. In addition, about three quarters of respondents spend at least one hour a day on social networking sites.

When asked what features you would like to see on a future College Republican network, the most popular responses included a job posting board, event sharing, integration with Facebook, and talking points on hot-button issues.

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Sincerely,

Zach Howell
National Chairman
College Republicans

Riiiiiiight. Their proprietary social network was so "successful" that they decided to dismantle it. Because after the 2008 election, there would never be any need to quickly and efficiently organize "200,000" College Republicans. I know conservatives are fond of declaring the End of History, I didn't realize there was also an End of Organizing as well.

Or maybe things didn't go "as scheduled." Maybe this is in response to the fact that the system cost upwards of $300,000 and never actually worked, eliciting ridicule from the rank and file College Republicans. Maybe it's because so few people used the system that they got punked trying to run a contest during the RNC. Or maybe it's because if the system actually worked and was sustainable, they wouldn't be able to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars in welfare to conservative web development firms.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. There's nothing to be alarmed about here folks, everything is proceeding according to plan. This is our regularly scheduled programming.

Conservatives have a lot of work to do if they want to climb out of their demographic hole. Something tells me that Millennials aren't going to want to be involved in an organization that lies to its membership.

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

I just received this email from the College Republican National Committe (via the STORM network - yeah, I'm still on the list).

Hey M. Joseph -

The deadline to register to vote is almost here for most states. If you've changed addresses since the last time you were registered, you need to re-register fast!

You can register now using this link, or by visiting your Secretary of State's web site.

Thanks,
Charlie Smith
National Chairman
College Republicans

P.S. If you've already registered, forward this on to 5 Republican friends.

Unsubscribe Message

The hilarious part is that, in the original email, the bolded text is a link that takes the reader to Rock the Vote's voter registration widget. On the tactical level, that's smart. Rock the Vote is sure to do at least some GOTV work this year, and that's free GOTV for the College Republicans.

From a communications standpoint, it's pure hilarity and sends all sorts of mixed messages. It wasn't more than three weeks ago that the College Republican National Committee was issuing ultimatums to Rock the Vote, and the non-partisan organization is typically a target for Republicans looking to suppress the youth vote.

I guess CRNC was against Rock the Vote before they were for it?

Update: I just want to add that this is pretty standard for the Republicans. As Thomas Frank ably describes in his new book, Wrecking Crew, ever since the days of Abramoff and Norquist, the college Republicans have fought to defund or delegitimize organizations that they perceived as being too far to the left. And in 2004, Ed Gillespie, chairman of the RNC, engaged in a high-profile dispute with Rock the Vote. This is just another extension of those tactics and that fight.
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I've alluded a few times to a big, upcoming story on what I did at the RNC. I'd hoped to have another week or so of anonymity, but my cover is blown, and the College Republicans are attacking one of our own, so it's time to come clean.

Last week, I attended the RNC. I wasn't a credentialed blogger, as I was at the DNC, and I wasn't a protester shaking my fist at the Xcel Center. I attended the Republican National Convention on the dime of the College Republicans, who gave me free housing, free credentials for each night, and access to all their events. They didn't do this out of the kindness of their hearts, they did it because I tricked them.

In an effort to increase the number of active users on STORM, the College Republican social network, the CRNC held a contest this summer in which the top 40 recruiters on the network (the "STORM 40") would receive free housing at the Republican National Convention. Myself, with the help of a number of friends, created an account and won a spot in that top 40. It wasn't even all that hard.

Today, the beans were spilled, and the College Republicans finally figured out what went on. Now they're attacking our own Sarah Burris because an article in City Pages improperly identified her as a Rock the Vote employee who participated in this project:

“This sort of behavior from an employee of a non-partisan organization is completely unacceptable,” said Ethan Eilon, Executive Director of the College Republican National Committee. “Sarah Burris’ participation in Connery’s plot is unethical at best, and is possibly illegal. The College Republicans demand that Burris be dismissed from her position, and that Rock the Vote issue a public apology for their connection to this matter.”

College Republican National Chairman Charlie Smith added: “Connery and Burris’ twisted plot of lies and subterfuge is ridiculous behavior in a free and open democracy. Their sad attempt to embarrass the College Republicans demonstrates the liberal desperation to discredit the conservative youth movement. Barack Obama’s advantage with young voters is rapidly dwindling. Several recent polls have shown Obama’s lead among young voters has dropped from 30 points to nearly single digits in only a month. Connery and Burris’ behavior shows that Democrats will clearly do anything to disguise the rapid shift of young voters towards the candidacies of Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin.”

To be clear, Sarah is not an employee of Rock the Vote, she is an independent contractor. And at no time did she use Rock the Vote's time, money, or access to promote my infiltration of the RNC. Rock the Vote has zero connection to this project.

If the College Republican social network was at all robust, or if they had done even the smallest amount of vetting, this would not have been possible. It's understandable that they are upset and feel the need to push back, but their attacks against Sarah and Rock the Vote, however, are completely off base and unsubstantiated.

Since this is all finally starting to come out, I also want to be clear as to my own behavior and motives. I did not do this to "embarrass" the College Republicans. I did this in an attempt to discover what the College Republicans really think about their status in the minority position within their generation; to uncover, without PR or spin, what that means for their organizing efforts on campus; to directly compare the youth organizing at the DNC to its Republican counterpart; and to see if the College Republicans, with its $5 million budget, really is an organizing powerhouse or just a paper tiger padding the accounts of Republican consultants. In some of this, I was successful, in other areas I wasn't. I'll write more about that later.

If I wanted to embarrass the College Republicans, I had ample opportunity. There were tons of media at the convention, and my little STORM group (only 15 of who actually came to the RNC), was in the press quite a bit - from MTV to UPI. If I wanted to mess with the College Republicans or the Republican youth message, I could have easily done so.

Instead, I mostly stayed out of the media - I wasn't looking to punk anyone in that way. I didn't goad anyone while I was in St. Paul into saying things they would regret, and I tried hard to lie as little as possible. I even supplied my real name and email address when signing up for this contest. If anyone asked me whether or not I was writing an article, I would have broken cover and told the truth. At no time were such questions raised. If people assume you believe the same things they do, it's amazing how far you can get in conversations by just offering straight political analysis.

More to come.