Republicans are great at attracting money, but they don’t seem to know what to do with it.
Democrats had the help of a major ally in the quest to modernize their campaigns: unions. The labor movement might seem like an odd generator of cutting-edge tactics but, squeezed by declining membership and funds, it has turned into an innovation factory for the party. Michael Podhorzer, the AFL-CIO’s political director, was a founder of the Analyst Institute, a group dedicated to testing the best methods for voter contact and persuasion.
Republicans don’t hurt for allies. But many of them, like the Karl Rove-founded super PAC American Crossroads and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, follow a simple formula: Raise a bunch of money and spend it on TV ads. It’s not exactly a revolutionary way to conduct campaigns. “What is the third-party group that is equivalent to the labor movement on our side?” Lundry asked. “Is it the chamber? Probably not.”
Unlike unions, those GOP-leaning groups don’t invest much in the ground game, which, to many GOP operatives who do work in the field, is part of a bigger problem. The GOP’s political class simply doesn’t value that kind of work, even if it’s increasingly important in the 21st century.
Most young Republican operatives view organizing as a mere entry point to a career that will eventually lead to bigger, and better-paying, gigs. “Democrats actually set up and train people to think about those jobs as careers,” said Brian Stobie, a partner at the GOP data-management firm Optimus. “A field-organizing roll can be a career over there. In our world, it’s a $27,000-a-year job you can’t wait to get out of.”
This is a fascinating article, but it seems to me even the Republicans who are trying to “change the culture” are still oblivious about what their real problems are. For example:
A few GOP consultants say the party’s conservative philosophy hinders the sharing of its best ideas—both with other Republican campaigns and within individual campaigns themselves. “We are so individualistic on the Republican side, both in our philosophy and policy,” Harris said. “It definitely bleeds over into how we are managing and structuring campaigns. And we have to break that.”
This is BS. The problem is not that they are too “individualistic.” The problem is that they are too “narcissistic.” It’s not the same thing.
Young Democrats are working for something. They’re working for economic justice, racial and gender equality, reproductive and marriage rights, the planet itself.
What are young Republicans working to achieve, other than winning elections? What noble cause can they dedicate themselves to? Other than some people (preferably them ) getting rich? Some of them are working against economic justice, racial and gender equality, etc., of course. But for them it all boils down to maintaining the privileges of the privileged, in hopes of being privileged themselves, if they aren’t already.
If it doesn’t occur to them to innovate or share information, it’s probably because, deep down, they don’t give a bleep about anyone but themselves. So they’re given a task, such as raising X amount of money or electing X candidate, and they’ll work to do that, but without inspiration, purpose and idealism it won’t occur to them to innovate or see the bigger picture beyond their particular task. Because people who innovate and who are always looking for ways to serve the larger cause have to have a larger cause to serve first.
Oh, that is so good. Thank you!
If it doesn’t occur to them to innovate or share information, it’s probably because, deep down, they don’t give a bleep about anyone but themselves.
There’s truth to that, and also to the notion that most of them see it as a stepping stone to something better. But I would also add, that most of them are simply too stupid to innovate anything, unless it’s some new form of being vicious and nasty or deceptive.
People who are innovative, visionary and have confidence in their abilities, are willing to take risks – don’t retreat to the dumbed down, survival mode, gotta-protect-what-I’ve-got-at-any-cost mindset that characterizes conservatives. It’s no surprise that the most innovative people aren’t conservatives. They don’t need to be.
What are young Republicans working to achieve, other than winning elections?
Patronage jobs? Take a look at Chris Christie’s rise to power. He went from being an obscure second rate ambulance chaser without a resume to the federal prosecutor for New Jersey all for about a $70,000 dollar fund raising contribution for George Bush’s reelection campaign. Depending upon your ability to suck up, smooze, and swear an oath of fealty — the rewards can be tremendous.
Well, whatever their motivation or goals are you can be sure it’s based in some form of self interest. Is there such a creature as an altruistic Repug?
Some quotes can’t be said often enough:
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
John Kenneth Galbraith
Add to what everyone else has written, the fact that modern Conservatism is an effort to grift money from the rubes.
It’s all a grift – a giant con game.
And the only modernization that I can see, is that they no longer lick stamps, instead, they hit “Send” on their e-mail lists, to sucker the fools into sending them some more cash.
Republicans are the great man theory of history. They’re continually waiting for the next great man to rise up, unify the party and win the presidency. Past that, they rely on gerrymandering and small backward states to keep the House and stay relevant in the senate. If congress reflected what the Americans really wanted, Dems would have sizable majorities in both. The good news is there is no one like Reagan to be found. Again, if Scott Walker is in the conversation as your prez candidate, that’s all you need to know about the Republican Party.
Buckyblue,
Walker looks and sounds like the winner of “The Most Boring CPA” at their annual convention.
“The banality of evil,” indeed!
And they almost had it, they stated the problem but are so blind they can’t see it even after they write it. These GOPers are trying to make as much money out of their politics as they can. They’re not politicians or political operatives, they’re grifters.
GULAG – “Add to what everyone else has written, the fact that modern Conservatism is an effort to grift money from the rubes.
It’s all a grift – a giant con game.”
Forget grifting conservative rubes. That’s just cheerleading, not the game. Modern politics as practiced by both parties is a giant con game, but they are raiding the public treasury. The difference is that the democrats are willing to throw crumbs to the peasants while the republicans want the poor to fully suffer the consequences of their plight. A truly representative democracy where the Congress has the general welfare of the people as their goal has not been seen in the USA in our lifetime. If ever.
This isn’t an example of false equivalency. Look at Obamacare. It’s a big step forward but there’s a reason there is no public option. The benefit for the people was paid for with a guaranteed monopoly for the insurance industry. Look at the farm bill – the parts with bipartisan support are a gift to agribusiness – the big players. (Who contribute back to both parties generously.) The public fight over SNAP benefits were crumbs in the overall farm bill. Medicare Part B was a gift to big RX. The list goes on and on. Regardless of which party writes legislation, in the modern political world, at least in the US, nothing big happens in legislation unless the legislation is primarily a huge gift to some special interest.
I’m a democrat – I’ll continue to vote that way because there will be more benefit to the needy from liberal policies, however corrupt, than conservative policies where the corruption is nearly overt and institutional. A solution is required – not preferred – a constitutional amendment which authorizes and requires legislation that ensures honest government by banning the corruption. A wall of separation between the government and big money from the time a candidate declares, while in office and AFTER he retires from office.
Besides getting rich, the main funding of the Republican Party comes from people and corporations that want o maintain and expand their wealth. Political contributions have some of the highest rates of return available to the super rich and for big corporations.
The one caveat is that the cost of bankrolling the losing side can be catastrophically high including long prison sentences. Why, for example, is the Obama administration spending so much time and money going after Steven Cohen and SAC? My guess is because Cohen as an outsider put his money behind Hillary Clinton, figuring that the 1990’s turned out well for him and other investors.
Since all of the big boys and girls on Wall Street are essentially crooks and influence peddlers, the pursuit of the billionaire Cohen must have some other reason that bad behavior in trading activities.
Similarly, the real reason behind Chris Christie and the highway exit seems more about locating a large mixed use office and retail development in Fort Lee than in securing the endorsement from a Democratic mayor in a Democratic town when Christie was a shoe-in for re-election.
One final thought. Teddy Roosevelt’s original anti-trust policy was right. Big is bad and should be broken up because of the power and political influence it represents. Woodrow Wilson’s modification that big is OK but only those with bad corporate behavior, monopolistic behavior, should be broken up was naive and ultimately led to many of our problems in thre last 20 to 40 years. Proposition 13, for one, was merely a devise to reduce property taxes for big landlords and real estate owners. It’s impact on California and the nation as a whole has been enormous and enormously bad.
It guess that Marco Rubio is stacking up to be the vaunted GOP savior. He’s already attained the despised and rejected among men( the GOP) attribute required for being a savior.
On a note of Reteavangeliban money in NC, let me tell you they do absolutely know at least how to get started with spending money. The most scurrilous ad is running right now with an actress who repeats in her soft little voice that “Obamacare doesn’t work. It just doesn’t work.” And she says milllions have lost their insurance and millions more will. It is a brilliant chunk of nastiness, dishonesty and death-dealing misinformation by implication. The ad has run countless times here, so often that it will become “truth” in the back brains of many voters. It is beyond the sophistication of any previous ad I have ever seen in its insidious insertion of doubt without facts. The intended audience is not likely to listen to facts that show the lies of the ad. The only way it can work is by its constant repetition, which can only take place because of vast amounts of money. If the R’s can knock off Kay Hagan, the Senate moves that much more toward the stupid party. Stupid but well-funded.