I received a fundraising solicitation from Mike Shields at the Republican National Committee that really show how hopelessly behind the times these people are:
Dear Clayton,
We are currently gearing up for the largest voter outreach program the Republican party has ever seen, and we need your help. This summer we will begin this process of putting hundreds of boots on the ground in communities across this nation. No one individual, demographic, or state will be overlooked, or taken for granted. This expansive program is going to change the way we do business, reshaping and rebuilding our party from the ground up. These plans are going to cost money, but we truly believe that this is going to change the face of our party, and in time our nation.
That is why we need your help TODAY!
The work we do this year is critical for laying the foundation for many years and elections to come. We can't afford to wait.
Contribute $10, $25, or $50 or whatever you can afford today and help us spread our party's message of prosperity to every single American.
Thanks,
Mike Shields
RNC Chief of Staff
My response:
You still haven't figured it out, have you? Much of the electorate pays no election to politics until the last few weeks before the election. We are wasting our money on elections until we start to work on the real campaign: entertainment that subtly influences and educates the low information voters. The Democrats are great at this, both because it works, and because it actually MAKES money. As long as the GOP is stuck with the old model -- responsible citizens that do their civic duty -- we are doomed to lose national elections.
Clayton E. Cramer
Maybe you didn't see it, but talking heads like Dick Morris declared that one big reason why Republicans lose is that Democrats run elections non-stop and thus they come into election season better prepared.
ReplyDeleteOn the face of it, the strategy doesn't seem to be wrong. If what they are doing is building up their local apparatus well before the election, that's a good thing. The Democrats sure do it.
ReplyDeleteClearly, we also need to find a way to deal with the Low Information Voters. But short of taking over Hollywood and the mass media, that's pretty difficult. My favorite solution is for wealthy conservatives to try to do just that - but I don't see a good path to it.
Murdoch buying the L.A. Times (current rumor) - he may have conservative Fox News but his Fox TV Network programs play the same old lefty Hollywood crap as anyone else. So if he changes the LAT, it would be to increase its monetary value, not it's propaganda direction.
The Republican's best chance for winning the White House is running a popular enough celebrity that has the mass-media appeal. Ideally also a woman and non-white. This is the most likely way to get the LIV's to vote for a Republican.
ReplyDeleteThough it won't help us much if that person is really just a Democrat pretending to be a Republican as some celebrity Republican's seem to be (Arnold for example).