The GOP and Technology = Water and Oil

Posted by Steve Benen, Washington Monthly at 4:58 AM on January 6, 2009.

It's just awkward (and funny) to listen to Republican leaders talk about how hip they are to the tools the kids are using on the tubes.

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When the six men hoping to lead the Republican National Committee weren't promising to build a religion around Ronald Reagan, they were talking about how hip they are to the tools the kids are using on the tubes.

"We have to do it in the Facebook, with the Twittering, the different technology that young people are using today," Duncan ventured.

"Let me just say that I have 4,000 friends on Facebook," contributed Blackwell, putting his hand on Dawson's and Anuzis's knees. "That's probably more than these two guys put together, but who's counting, you know?" Acknowledged Saltsman: "I'm not sure all of us combined Twitter as much as Saul."

Anuzis claimed he had "somewhere between 2- and 3,000" Facebook friends, which prompted Blackwell to remind the audience that he has 4,000 friends on the social networking site by waving four fingers behind Anuzis's head.

Well, if one candidate has more Facebook friends than another candidate, it's obvious who the superior visionary is.

Listening to Republican officials talk about technology is becoming increasingly painful. It's a bit like listening to an inept advertising agency promising a business that they'll have a strong "online presence" because it'll have a blog and its commercials will be on YouTube.

Let's call it the Republicans' Underpants Gnomes' Innovation Agenda. It's a three-part plan:

Step 1: Embrace blogs, twitter, and social networking websites
Step 2: (awkward silence)
Step 3: Electoral victory!

The Republican Party has deep and systemic problems. Its ideas are unpopular and its policies have failed. The GOP's agenda and ideology are out of sync with the nation's needs. Whether a candidate for RNC chairman has 3,000 or 4,000 friends on Facebook is hopelessly irrelevant.

As Oliver Willis recently noted, as long as the Republican Party is "debating whether a racially insensitive song is really that bad, listens to marching orders from Rush Limbaugh, and consistently defends the failed presidency of George W. Bush, they will stay in the wilderness. Even if they Twitter the eff out of it."

Tagged as: technology, republicans, gop, internet, rnc, twitter, facebook, ronald reagan, saltsman, duncan, dawson, anuzi

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Hmmm...you mistake the generational divide for a political one. [Report this comment] Posted by: ABetterFuture on Jan 6, 2009 8:09 AM Current rating: 2 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] Granted, when not screaming his fool head off, Howard Dean was more comfortable with the use of interwibble technologies during his tenure at DNC. I wouldn't make that case for Ted Kennedy, nor Nancy Pelosi, nor most of the D.C. incubated fortunate sons and daughters of birth and wealth. If you don't have to set up a web page to garner adoration and a paycheck, why would you? I don't put much stock in what politicians say, though. I want to see what they do. Perhaps that's another generational difference to be discussed on a different day. For now, we get Change(tm)(r), or rather, "thank goodness for any mouthpiece with two legs that isn't named George double-ya Bush". Not that that's a bad place to start, mind you, just odd how we let the bad ones warp our expectations of our public servants. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] THEY'RE AT A LOSS FOR WORDS [Report this comment] Posted by: VZEQICVA on Jan 6, 2009 9:13 AM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] If they aren't shouting at each other or telling someone to shut up, they all seem to flounder. Let's just say that they aren't good with words. Which by the way is all we have. They seem limited to bumper sticker thinking. They may not present a good argument for or against anything, but they sure can drive some of us crazy. Thanks, ANNA [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] They don't get it [Report this comment] Posted by: ianfan on Jan 6, 2009 9:50 AM Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] The problem isn't how they communicate, it's what ideas they are communicating. It's like Bush out there now saying he regrets not explaining his policies better and that is why he's unpopular. I don't think they understand that the public gets their message, but just plain disagrees with it. [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5] » RE: They don't get it Posted by: Xynyx Out of Sync... [Report this comment] Posted by: Scalpel on Jan 7, 2009 2:13 PM Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent] This does not bode well for the GOP. It is bad enough that these former Masters of the Universe are still praying for St. Reagan to deliver them from the logical consequences of their own ideology. If nothing else, the 2008 campaign showed that if you can master the Internet better than your opponent, you run a good chunk of the battlefield. Add in the fact that too many of the upper echelons barely understand how to work a computer, let alone how to use it effectively, and you've got a freshly-dug grave waiting for the one-time "party of Lincoln". [« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

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