What conservatives have to do online - Part I

Spring, 2008.

The primary season was in full roar and the Democrat's leaders, Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama, seemed to be running neck and neck. Most people and pundits had no idea who would win. But it was already pretty clear to me.

Why? I was sitting in classes week after week taught by someone who really knew what was going on: Garrett Graff, editor-at-large of the Washingtonian Magazine and Howard Dean's first webmaster. What he was showing us was unprecedented in politics and mind-boggling to any student of American history.

The Internet was alive with Obama buzz. Meetups, Tweetups and get-togethers of all kinds were going on among his followers all over the country. Bloggers were ablaze and on fire for Obama. Email networks which had been formed over the preceding three years were roaring with instant messages of what was going on in local, state and national politics. Obamamania was spreading with a viral ferocity among vast armies of young cell-phone carriers and video-watchers.

Then the YouTube video came out; the "Yes-We-Can" video which cast a Kennedy-like (Robert, not Jack) aura of 'righteousness' around Barak Obama and his idealism. More importantly it it planted a halo over the idealism and PASSION of his followers. Everything erupted. In the internet and messaging world the Obama campaign took on the tone of a revival meeting. There were millions of converts.

Another equally incredible thing happened which was totally new to American politics. Barak Obama began collecting many times more money from donors than Hillary did. The money part is not unprecedented. The unprecedented element is that Obama's contributions were not coming from the big Democratic fat-cat donors. Rather, almost all were in amounts of $50 or less, from millions of small, no-strings-attached donors. As Garrett explained - that was absolutely mind-boggling. It opened up a gapingly wide window of opportunity for Obama. He was not beholden to big donors if he won. Totally new ground politically - for either party.

Week after week our teacher talked about what that meant, and the part the Internet played in this change. The political process had truly been brought down to the real grassroots level. A politician was being produced with few financial-political-debts to pay. Masses of people felt that THEY were part of the new political process. It was heady and it was addicting.

And the Democrats were far ahead in the game.

One of the reasons Garrett Graff was so up on all of this was that he had just released his first book: The The First Campaign: Globalization, the Web, and the Race for the Wh.... Garrett was uniquely qualified to write it. Not only had he been Dean's first webmaster (and introduced him to computers while still in his teens) he had been an integral part of the famous Howard Dean campaign leading up to the 1984 presidential election. Remember how shocked everyone was back then that dean was raising tons of money from the INTERNET? (Being an Internet marketing guy, I well remember all the 'you gotta be kidding' remarks of the time - 'The INTERNET??')

To many at the time the Internet part had seemed only to seal Dean's geek-like, scream-ey, post-modern-off-mainstream persona.

Fast forward to 2007. Howard Dean is now the chair of the DNC. Many of the voting masses are now mainstream Internet users. Even more they are online and on-cellphone self-publishers, YouTube videographers, Facebook viral marketers. They are also IM-texters with fingers clicking their mobile devices in every shopping mall and airport in the country.

I had also been a part of that technological world - in fact - had been one of the pioneers from the '80's. As I was reading Garrett's book, I could see why things were happening the way they were. But I was a strong conservative.

Being a conservative I also had a strong, compelling story to tell. And I wanted my candidates to be heard the same way. But they were not being heard.

It was - and IS - very painful.

Fast forward to today. I feel better. Yes, we lost the election (and many smaller ones also) . But I feel better because conservatives are waking up. Many of YOU are taking your ideas about the REAL ISSUES to the new mainstream with the new media. It is exciting. I feel like a revolutionary again.

It has begun.
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Next post: 10 things conservatives are going to have to do online

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Here is Garret's autograph of my copy of his book. He really is a great guy, even if coming from liberal Vermont and a family that ran the Associated Press bureau there for a long time. he is a true online pioneer. not only was he Dean's first web guy, he was the first blogger to be given White House press credentials as a blogger alone. I recommend reading it. Extremely enlightening.