**Cross-posted from my all-new political blog, Conserva-Kat. Please check it out.***
Right now, the Republican party is in trouble. There are so many little netroots organizations starting up, which is great, but there is no central leadership.
The problem is, the RINOs in charge either don’t understand social media, or want to “control” it. It’s not going to happen sirs. The current Republican leadership is much like the Record Industry, back when it was trying to fight the first incarnation of Napster. People got used to the idea of free music, and instead of embracing the internet right away, the RIAA tried to stop everything. It didn’t work, in fact had the opposite effect of driving more and more people to piracy. Eventually the Music Industry had to revamp their business model to include internet sales.
Right now we have several netroots movements springing up. There’s TCOT, aka Top Conservatives on Twitter, and Rebuildtheparty, Dontgo, and more. All of this is great, but every movement has their own degrees of slant based on who is at the top of the movement. To me, it’s beginning to feel like there are way too many chefs, each with their own recipe, working out of the same pot. It could turn into something wonderful, fresh, and exciting! Or, it could turn into something awfully awful.
I’m waiting to see who the new Chairman of the Republican party will be, and how that person reacts to the netroots that are already taking off. I think if the new leadership calls the leaders of each movement together and says, “Thanks for giving us a head start! Now let’s see if we can get everyone on the same page.” If the new leadership listens to the people involved in all this, participates in the already existing movements, and builds off of what has already been done, things may go well. If the new leadership says basically screw you all, this is the “official” way to do this, and tries to start it’s own programs, well, it’s not going to end well.
Good post. The grass roots have to grow down before the blade we support starts to rise. It’s coming, too soon for a One Leader yet. The thing is, all these little fragmented groups follow an idea. Eventually the ideas will merge, and we have two years to complete the process.
We just want to be careful not to pick too soon and follow the wrong person.
“We just want to be careful not to pick too soon and follow the wrong person.”
Exactly. Thing is… if the leadership decides to screw the base and start their own “official” stuff, like was done here in VA. A Hampton Roads GOP blog was started, declaring itself to be the only & official one, and conservative bloggers in the area revolted because they were ignored by the local GOP.
If party leadership snubs those running these netroot movements, the result won’t be pretty.
I like where the netroots are headed. And I will participate. I’m waiting to see what the party leadership does with it all to determine if I stay a Republican or go unaffiliated.
I’ve long maintained that the bigger the differences between the two political parties (rather than trying to be more like them), the more of a real choice people actually have, and that’s a good thing!