Pay attention, GOP. This is important. I’m a young guy who blogs and uses Twitter, MySpace and Facebook regularly. But I couldn’t care less if you do. In fact, I’d rather you focus on doing something I haven’t seen you do lately: being conservative.
Yes, you got stomped in the last election — especially when it came to young voters. But if you think that it had much to do with the Democrats’ superior grasp of Web 2.0 technologies, you need to think again.
Yes, President Barack Obama currently has more than 6 million supporters on Facebook and 1.4 million friends on MySpace. And 13 million people did sign up for his e-mail list during the campaign. Those are big numbers.
But here are some other big numbers: A Republican president presided over a $4.9 trillion increase in the public debt between 2001 and 2009. Taxpayers for Common Sense tallied 2,510 Republican earmarks totaling $1.8 billion in the omnibus spending bill President Obama signed in March. (And that doesn’t include earmarks with bipartisan sponsorship.)
Far and away, the second set of numbers is more important to me. You’re going to keep losing young conservative voters so long as those kinds of numbers continue to come from GOP politicians who are supposed to be fiscal conservatives.
Your young constituents are looking to you to decrease this spending. And instead, you’re asking us to foot an increasingly large bill. Is it any wonder we’re not pleased with you? And that’s just the federal budget. Thinking about having to pay for Social Security and Medicare terrifies me. Ideas on how to reform them have been non-existent so far.
Lest you worry that cutting spending and entitlement reforms aren’t trendy enough for young conservatives, don’t forget that we’re not particularly concerned with trends. We can’t be. We’re used to explaining to our peers why we won’t switch to CFL bulbs, listen to Hollywood stars talk about politics or (God forbid) why we didn’t vote for Barack Obama. Do you really think we are particularly influenced by your presence on the newest, coolest website?
Now, this doesn’t mean there isn’t room for social media in the conservative toolbox. Businesses are finding new ways to leverage social media every day. The Obama campaign put on a clinic in the fall with its Web 2.0 strategies. There’s no reason the GOP can’t, too.
Social media are incredibly powerful tools, and your potential constituents are already using them. Finding conservatives on Twitter, the micro-blogging platform that allows users to send out “tweets” of 140 characters of less, is as easy as doing a search for the tag “#tcot” (Top Conservatives on Twitter).
And these Web-based interfaces aren’t the end of action; they’re the beginning. Just ask Amanda Teresi, 26, co-founder and president of Liberty on the Rocks, a grassroots group that meets over drinks to discuss a shared passion: limited government.
“Facebook is a major recruiting tool for me,” she said. “It’s allowed me to meet people from other states who have similar views. How would I have ever met them otherwise?”
But so long as the GOP isn’t actually doing what it should be, these tools aren’t going to work for it. Instead, they’ll work against it. Twitter allows conservatives to spread the word faster than ever when a Republican sponsors a ridiculous earmark. With blogs, voters can carry on a longer, more in-depth debate than you’ll ever manage to have on the floor. And they won’t be parsing their words in an attempt to get re-elected. Facebook provides a way for similarly irritated voters to start working together to find a new candidate to support.
So, heed my words, GOP. Twitter won’t be saving the GOP until you send out the following message: “Cut federal budget 30%. Plan to do the same tomorrow.” And even then, it won’t be Twitter saving the party.
Check out T.J. Wihera’s blog contributions at www.generationwhy. com/whysperspective. Contact him at timothy.wihera@gmail.com.
