Through Richard Brandt, I was pointed to this Reuters Report of Google bigwig Eric Schmidt advising the Republican Party that if they want to succeed in our next national elections, they need to get more active in politics.
To which I say, "no shit, Schmidt."
More and more people are turning to the Internet as their primary sources of information. For example, a decade ago, the very Reuters report I pointed to would have been available to you only if you worked the International wire in a newspaper or other traditional publication.
If you want to attract young voters, you will find them on the Internet. More and more elected officials and candidates are turning to the Internet for conversations with the voters. This includes Anthony Williams, mayor of Washington DC.; David Cameron, Tory candidate to replace Tony Blair; Michaelle Jean, Canada's Governor Genera, two Italian cabinet ministers, Indonesia's secretary of defense, Iran's president and all sorts of hopefuls in all sorts of places, many of them democracies. [Note: Michaelle Jean title corrected and link added].
Why are people in the political spotlight going to blogs? Well, let's do a brief analogy. Willy Sutton, the legendary Depression Era American bank robber was once asked why he robbed banks. "Because, that's where the money is," he replied. Why is David Cameron using a video blog to get elected? Because that's what the voters are watching to an increasing degree.
Because increasingly the people who vote can be found there. Looking forward a few years, the trend is clear that if you want to get elected you need to go online. Every day 100 million YouTube videos are being watched. There are 90 million people on MySpace, more and more young people are using SecondLife and these trends will not change. Nor will the downturns on the numbers of people gleaning less information from traditional media.
I suspect however, that Republicans already knew this. I have heard persistent rumors that in the last presidential election, while headlines were blaring and bloggers were gushing about a blog allegedly by Howard Anderson, actually written by Joe Trippi, ministers in Indiana, Ohio and Texas were blogging to their congregations, urging them to vote for George Bush. This latter tactic is obviously more authentic and more effective in delivering voters where they are needed most and t was a Republican tactic.
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