Show Us Your Twits
As politics went, the first decade of this new century were pretty gloomy times for the Democrats. They lost two Presidential elections (to one of, if not the worst President in American history), they were completely scolded and impotent in both the House and the Senate, and even after regaining majorities they were still too abused and politically marginalized to get anything useful done. And yet it was a sort of underground revival for liberals in this country. The Republicans managed to do what the Democratic base had been unable to. It knocked the Democratic Party’s machine flat on its back without completely snuffing the party out. And what emerged was a party largely rebuild by constituents rather than consultants.
Liberals and progressives began to take the party back. Not completely or universally by any stretch, but the actual voting base has much more power than it ever did before. And make no mistake, all of this is largely thanks to Ye Olde Interwebs. The fund raising, organizing, and phone banking have all been exceptional – certainly Obama showed the power of of a multitude of minor donations adding up fast.
But it’s more than that. It’s also about a sense of community and interconnectedness that was never really present in the Democratic party of my lifetime. Liberals were often so very fragmented over individual issues and frequently lacked any sort of core message to articulate their core beliefs. It’s the failure of the Democratic establishment that none of these things came from within the party machine, but it’s also the triumph of the party as it exists today that the left realized it didn’t need to be spoon-fed wet noodle talking points.
Well now it’s the Republicans that are lost in the wilderness, devoid of a cohesive message or strategy, relying on failed arguments and foot-shuffling pointlessness to pass for a platform. Granted, the GOP wound up there for completely different reasons than the Democrats did, and the country is in a very different place. But many Republicans looked to the past eight years to figure out how a party goes from being a “permanent minority” to owning both houses and the Presidency in less than a decade. And that is when many of them (for the first time, I suspect) figured out what the internet actually is. Sort of.
So as liberals dominate the blogs, the community sites, the forums and the message boards, conservatives looked for the next big technological barrier to break. They were going to get in on the ground floor of something, damn it, and show those no goodnik Daily Kos punks that two can play at this internet game. And almost universally, the GOP focused in on the one facet of electronic communication that didn’t seem to have much of an organized Democratic presence. Unfortunately for them, that was Twitter.
Now don’t get me wrong – there’s nothing inherently wrong with Twitter. In fact, I find it to be a very interesting medium. The best explanation I’ve ever heard of it is as a “Broadcast IM” service, and that really does seem to fit. It’s just that Twitter is designed to relay short, off-the-cuff bits of information, rapidly and regularly, to anyone who might care to listen. It simply isn’t a good place to do serious organizing or hold genuine debate. Though maybe it is the perfect fit for the Republican party today. 160 characters and you’re done. Just enough for a sound bite or a slogan without anything other than obstruction for obstruction’s sake behind it.
I don’t think the GOP has caught on yet that being the undisputed political Kings Of Twitter is kind of like having the most popular Twilight / Furry Fan Fic web portal on the internet. I imagine it will take them some time, and that the vast majority of them will never really understand what it is they’re playing at. Nor am I under any delusion that most of the politicians who claim to tweet are simply having their talking points mushed in with their daily planner and typed out by an intern in their spare time. And yet they’re putting a lot of stock – and money – into promoting the conservative Twitter community. Even Sarah Palin tweets now, which is weird because I didn’t know pitbulls could text without thumbs.
So I say let them have Twitter. Go ahead, you silly buggers. Own the hell out of it. Because while one political party is dominating every digital medium that’s broad enough to foster a serious discussion, the other party will be reduced to listing their political platform in lolspeak. u can haz permanent minorty kthxbye!
Say what you will about Sarah Palin, I know of FEW politicians who could deadpan an interview while a turkey is getting slaughtered in the background. The woman’s got some chops.
You also underestimate the Right, and their presence on the Internet. They’ve had their Daily Kos and idealogical blogs for the same amount of time that the Left has.
Oh, sure. There are plenty of sites. Red State, Free Republic (though that’s more of the right’s Democratic Underground), even sources like Drudge. I’m not saying they’re not out there. What I’m saying is that they don’t leverage them. They never have leveraged them in the way that the left has. And when they do (as with Twitter) it comes off as Grandpa Playing With The Remote.
One of the things that I see on a lot of the left wing sites that I just don’t see on the right is unfavorable polling. There is a lot more analysis of the numbers game going on. The whole polling section on DKos has really come together as a resource – and a very non-partisan resource (and I’m ONLY talking about the poll results here, obviously). They’ve followed the national trend lines and very accurately predicted election results for quite some time now – probably because they outsource their polling to a neutral third party firm.
I just feel like there’s more information there – and whether that information is then turned into spin or talking points or what have you isn’t the point. There’s just more meat on them bones. And while I’m hesitant to evoke clunky old stereotypes. . . it just furthers the whole left / right generational disconnect issue. It’s Ted Stevens’ series of tubes in a million tiny brackets.
And while I don’t have a great or burgeoning respect for Sarah Palin, one of the things she is very good at is employing Dog Whistle Politics. That whole Turkey thing was a major visual dog whistle. . . not to mix metaphors.
To be fair, Norm Coleman is right there on the bleeding edge, letting us all know that Republicans need to harness the power of the ethernet. Which is kind of fitting, since I can’t imagine anyone who doesn’t already work in the same office as Norm Coleman wanting to hear him speak. And hey, at least they’re getting paid for the abuse.