Notes on the Revolution - What will Rightroots look like?

Jon Henke of The Next Right seems to think it's going to look like the Nutroots,

Will the Right's netroots movement look like that of the Left?  To the extent that the tools, and the social/political dynamics, are similar, I'd say the Right's netroots movement will look a great deal like that of the Left.  The question is not what tools are available, but how they are relevant to the surrounding environment.  The components will not be identica, but the basic concepts they represent should be very much the same.  Or rather, they will be when the Right regains its footing.

I'm not convinced that it will, and I'm not convinced that it should either.  I don't think we can win that way, either.  I'm not even convinced that it will something even remotely comparable to the nutroots political machine.  I'm beginning to think that the blogosphere and the Rightroots are going to be less of a political machine like the nutroots have become, but more like an academy, the evolution of the Limbaugh philosophy of teaching conservatism daily. 

I don't think the Right's political activism will ever be based on the intarwebs, or on talk radio or on wonkish magazines or papers, but will be based on word of mouth, face to face communication, lifestyle and daily life.  Bloggers for the most part aren't going to lead the revolution, they're going to advise it in an indirect fashion, and serve as a weather vane for the for movement conservatives who will work to infiltrate the GOP, both as GOP operatives, as candidates.  It will also be utilized by those working to change the culture.

Consider this, from John Hawkins, talking about the GOP's tin ear,

That's a real shame because had they listened to bloggers, most of the big political snafus of the last four years could have been avoided. However, they pay zero attention to things they're told by bloggers, even on the rare occasions when they ask what we think.

Just to give you an example of what I'm talking about, here's a generic conversation, some variation of which I've had with different congressional aides at least half-a-dozen times over the last four years.

Anonymous Aide: Hawkins, I want to ask your advice.
John Hawkins: Shoot.
Anonymous Aide: We're thinking about doing idea x.
John Hawkins: Are you out of your mind? That's going to be a disaster!
Anonymous Aide: Well, they've already decided to do it. How do we sell it to the bloggers?
John Hawkins: You're asking me whether you should put mayonnaise or mustard on a sh*t sandwich. I can give you some advice, but it's not going to go over well no matter how you spin it.

Inevitably, it doesn't sell -- which cuts to the heart of the problem the GOP has with bloggers: they need to have conversations with bloggers instead of just viewing us as another part of the message machine.

Do they just not think to call or email the big bloggers, or hell, a Rush or Levin, to see how a certain action is going to be taken by the base?   Evidently, and the sad part is that most of them are more clueless than this aide, both as politicians and political operatives. 

This dynamic will change however.  It has to, whether it happens in 2010, or if it takes the GOP getting it's ass handed to it in a few more elections.  Somewhere in the future, GOP candidates will figure this out (and maybe one has already), and campaign volunteers/workers with experience in the blogosphere will be able to guide candidates in how to utilize and use the blogosphere.

I ultimately think that if the right blogosphere is doing the right thing, it isn't going to change that much, it'll mostly just grow larger and broader, and bloggers and right blogs will better utilized by conservatives going out into Real Life^TM to make a better world.  It certainly won't look like the Nutroots.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 01:04 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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