As Bob Dylan wrote the times they are a-changin'. The campaign model that work for republicans in the past will not be as effective in the future. The internet has had a larger impact on this than most of us would have predicted. If the Barack Obama campaign in 2008 is not evidence enough of this, with his rumored 13 million email addresses, consider that the largest online fundraising day was set by a little known congressman from Texas who managed a marginal showing in the majority of Republican primaries.

When I undertook the challenge of launching a new club for young republicans in the Bronx I opened up my MacBook and did a little research on young republican clubs. I looked at not only on the existing local New York City area clubs but other clubs and federations around country. I wasn't just researching ideas for our website but also ideas on how to make a well rounded and active club. Unfortunately what I saw was not only disappointing but appallingly bad efforts by local clubs and state federations alike. Not that the national federation was any better.

How bad is it out there? 17 state federations have no website. Alaska's YR Federation website still has Frank Murkowski listed as governor of the state even though Sarah Palin has been the governor for over two years. The Texas YR Federation website has links that have been dead for over a year. California's federation isn't even listed has having a website by the Young Republican National Federation. If that isn't bad enough consider that Ohio, a swing state in the three previous presidential elections, is a federation without a website.

What does it say about republicans if our national and state federations auxiliaries can't manage to put up websites or keep even the most basic information up to date? Is it that we don't understand the value of the internet or is just laziness?

Over the past four years the functions of websites have moved beyond just providing information towards hubs of social and business networking where people engage one another individually. It is time for us to take it to the next step. Political networking.

It is unlikely that more than a handful of local young republican auxiliaries would have the means to create the sort of websites we saw from the Paul or Obama campaigns. However this is exactly what we should expect from the state federations. None of the state federations offer websites that have a networking component. Most don't even use a content management system. Few offer regular updates such a blog or calender.

I'm not sure what the future holds for the Republican Party but I do know if we don't bridge this gap that has emerged in the last election we will continue to struggle in state and national elections. We have to make a better effort to present our message online because younger people are trending towards the internet to gather their information on politics. This divide won't be closed solely by a better online presence but it will continue to broaden if they can't find us, and we can't keep then engaged, when they come looking for our message, candidates and auxiliaries.

The times they are a changin' and so must we.

Comment (3)

Seriously here is yet another example of a person registered as a republican who is just lost on the understanding of what a republican actually is.

 http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3760232

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So I finally got an email from someone at the state YR office. Seems a few people in Bronx had expressed some desire to get involved before the election. The state YR sent this email to me and all the others who expressed an interest in organizing. A few people replied all to it. So that is a good sign. Well not that they replied all but that they simply replied.

 I sent him back an email stating that I would be more than willing to take the lead since I've actually started up a club before. Starting one isn't all the difficult. Keeping it active however can be. However since the Bronx GOP is in such pathetic shape there should be plenty to do.

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Over this past election I kept reading little tidbits about how this or that union was spending this or that this election cycle. The AFL-CIO budgeted 250 million.  The SEIU budgeted 85 million. Which got me to thinking why aren't we being proactive in peeling away membership.

I propose that the GOP find, target and recruit republican union members to go rouge and form thier own unions.  I know the thought is as absurd as it gets. Yet it is just the sort of action the democrats would never see coming.

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In 2003 I moved to the Bronx. Eager to become involved in my local community I struck out one day shortly there after to introduce myself to the local GOP leadership. As luck would have it someone was in the office that day and I left my contact info after meeting with the executive assistance.

 Looking back I realize it wasn't just luck but highly unusual that someone was even in that day. Since that initial trip I've made dozens of trips to the office on Williamsbridge. In the four plus years since I moved out here I've found someone in the office about half a dozen times. 

What is more appalling to me is that with each visit where someone was in the office I've left contact information with the hope I might be asked to help either the party or a campaign. In the four plus years I've lived in the Bronx I've never been asked to circulate a petition, register voters, stuff envelopes, man a phone bank, or walk with a candidate. I've never even been contacted by the Bronx GOP to assist with anything.

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When did we go from being the party that wanted to protect liberty and freedom to the party that is all about supporting government intrusions. It is this loss of focus in your platform, and our actions,  that has cost us in the last few elections. Liberty is important to everyone regardless of ethnicity or income so why aren't we standing up for it more often?

If you doubt how far we've strayed from Taft and Goldwater consider this contradiction in our platform. Same sex marriage bans. The party as repeatedly supported laws banning same sex marriages.

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