New media can’t overcome old message, GOP’s digital strategists say

Republicans now have the iPhone apps, rapid-response tweets, Facebook likes and microtargeting that put them on par with Democrats. But the digitally fueled push to capture new voters is also a reminder of how much ground the GOP still needs to make up in attracting younger and more diverse supporters.

As social media and digital tools have become increasingly mainstream and no longer the domain of the young and the hip, the early stages of GOP's digital revolution have tended to do more to revive its traditional base of support among older, white voters than expand and diversify the party on a grass-roots level.

Republican strategist David All, for instance, had imagined that tech-savvy, young "Netflix Republicans" would flock to a revived GOP that had created a new community and a bigger party tent through the Internet.

Another GOP strategist, Mindy Finn, similarly described the digital push as part of a bigger transformation. "The Republican Party cannot reboot if it's viewed only as a party of old, crusty white guys," she told The Washington Post in November 2008 as she was launching a new digital platform to "Rebuild the Party."

Youthful enthusiasm has fallen off for Obama since 2008, but that doesn't mean that young people are flocking to Republican nominee Mitt Romney. Among eligible voters younger than 30, an October poll from the Harvard Institute of Politics found that approval of Romney is at 36 percent, compared with 55 percent for Obama. Romney's rating is only a few points above John McCain's performance with the same age group. McCain had 32 percent approval; Obama had 66 percent.

Romney has also failed to make inroads with minorities, drawing a full 91 percent of his vote from white voters, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC News tracking poll. That poll showed that the racial gap between the parties has grown bigger than in 2008.

That isn't what some of the GOP's earliest digital gurus had anticipated. "I thought if I armed everyone with the right tools and taught everyone how to use them, ultimately, the end result would be change. That's not what happened," says All, 33.

The GOP's new digital prowess could still help the party prevail Tuesday as the Romney campaign makes its last-minute push to generate enthusiasm and get out the vote. But that victory may be despite the country's changing demographics, not because of them.

Finn and All were among the young Republican consultants who have spent much of the past decade urging their own party to catch up. Finn help to found the first new-media department at the Republican National Committee in 2005, working together with eCampaign Director Patrick Ruffini. All led the push on Capitol Hill, helping then-Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) start the first congressional blog in 2005 and launching a conservative equivalent to ActBlue, a progressive PAC, in 2007.

Source: http://www.news.theusalinks.com/2012/11/02/new-media-cant-overcome-old-message-gops-digital-strategists-say/