Republicans Gone Wired

Posted at 1:36 PM on November 10, 2008 by Sanden Totten

That "series of tubes" so terribly misunderstood by Republican Ted Stevens has had the last laugh. The Internet has irrevocably changed the way elections are won. And this year, the Internet sided with the Democrats.

The Internet? (Photo by vanz via Creative Commons)

Or at least, that's what some tech savvy Republicans are saying. In response to Obama's new site, Change.gov, a group of Republicans have launched RebuildTheParty.com. Their goal is to radically revamp the way their party works:

"We don't need a slight tweak here or there. We need transformation. We can't keep fighting a 21st century war with 20th century weapons."

This comes at a time when the party's standing army of radio talk show hosts seems to have been defeated.

As Steve Elman and Alan Tolz point out in an article on Boston.com, talk radio is losing its influence over the opinions of listeners:

"American listeners no longer expect talk-radio hosts to be reasonable - or even rational. Most listeners now assume that when they strike a talk show as they cruise across the dial, the talker will be a (sometimes rabid) promoter of a particular point of view."

So the Republicans need to learn some new tricks. They've got four years to become a little better acquainted with those tubes. But of course, the Internet isn't everything in elections. Just ask Ron Paul, king of the Internet . . . but still not president.

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