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Peer Production and the Future of the Republican Party: An Open Letter to the Next RNC Chairman

by Aaron Marks | December 1, 2008 at 4:59 AM
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This letter was written as a follow-up to some points I raised about idea creation for the GOP in an earlier blog post.

To the future chairman of the Republican National Committee,

We face a tough road over the coming days, months, and years as we work to transform the Republican Party into the party of the future so that we can recover from this year’s devastating losses in the House, Senate, and ultimately, White House. The path ahead will be a challenging one, but I am convinced that we are up to the challenge and that ultimately we will prevail.

In order to do this, however, we must recognize as a party that many of the ways of the past are no longer the way of the future. For example, Barack Obama has proven that new media and the Internet are essential to winning elections. Similarly, we now see that we must be able to raise a large percentage of money and build a powerful infrastructure online.

Following this logic, we also need to realize that peer production is the way of the future – not just in politics or business, but in all walks of life. At a macro level, this means that we must democratize the Republican Party by opening it to mass collaboration. If the Republican Party wants to be the party of the future, it must adopt this sort of collaboration driven, peer production based model.

Indeed, peer production has proven enormously and unequivocally successful as a business model. Corporations are scrambling to replicate the impeccable successes of companies like Goldcorp, Inc., who in 1999 was on the verge of bankruptcy because it was unable to locate sources of gold on its property. Out of desperation, CEO Rob McEwen issued the “Goldcorp Challenge,” inviting anyone and everyone to help the company locate gold on its campus. The success was astounding: due to peer production, Goldcorp went from being an underperforming $100 million company to a $9 billion juggernaut. Many other leading companies, including IBM, Boeing, and Procter & Gamble have adopted peer production as a central component of their business model to similarly resounding success. Although political trends tend to lag behind business trends, peer production is clearly one trend in which we cannot afford to fall behind.

In fact, Barack Obama’s electoral success was not really due to his use of the Internet. Rather, the Internet only served as the medium through which Obama’s volunteers and supporters could peer produce. In the end, it was the Obama campaign’s understanding of the necessity of utilizing peer production and its ability to do so that fueled his victory. MyBarackObama.com was immensely successful in doing this, resulting in his supporters peer producing 200,000 offline events, 400,000 blog posts, 3 million phone calls, and $500 million. Everything at MyBarackObama made it unambiguously clear: “This campaign is about you.”

Democrats, following in the footsteps of countless successful corporations, are going to continue to use this model in 2010 and beyond because it is a proven winner. Accordingly, this begs the question: are we going to do the same? Please, Mr. Chairman, let the answer be an unmistakable, “Yes!”

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Comments

But it's not about you -- us.

Submitted by davidfarrar on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 11:04.

It's about Obama. Are you suggesting that we, as a party, involve ourselves in this same type of bait-and-switch deception simply to win the next election? Are you seriously suggesting that at some point the electorate will not catch on to this ruse as we are even now suggesting that Obama's supporters will soon catch on to his?

Believe me, I understand your point about the communicative effectiveness of the internnet and how is has changed the ground rules. And I agree, at first, at the beginning of this new, Cybernetic age, people can and will be easily fooled, but not for long. If we want our supporters to produce peers, it had better be to empower themselves within the party and the political process itself.

What this means in cybernetic terms is giving all party members their voice, allowing all to speak and allowing all to be accurately and verifiably heard. If this is what you are actually suggesting the Republican Party engage itself in; I agree.

ex animo

davidfarrar

 

ex animo

davidfarrar

You Got It

Submitted by Aaron Marks on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 13:52.

David,

When you say:

What this means in cybernetic terms is giving all party members their voice, allowing all to speak and allowing all to be accurately and verifiably heard. If this is what you are actually suggesting the Republican Party engage itself in; I agree.

That's exactly what I'm pushing for.

I'm with ya, bro

Submitted by davidfarrar on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 14:52.

United we stand, divided we fall.

ex animo

davidfarrar

methods not message

Submitted by eow101281 on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 15:51.

 I think the METHODS of Obama and the leftist illuminati should be embraced, not the message. We can tout the message that is core to us while still engaging people, making them active and excited participants in the GOP. No bait and switch needed

you just keep right on going

Submitted by RisingTide on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 16:00.

with that hate radio then, my good man!

A movement built against, and not for, is a hard thing to survive if you are not part of that movement.

Accordingly, the more you encourage excitable participation the more your party will quake with anger.

What are you for? And don't just give me homilies.

The Internet a perfect place to start

Submitted by Char Cook on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 16:32.

 

Yes, I agree that the Internet is the perfect place to start, but it is NOT all we need to do.  We need to grow our Grassroots efforts.  We need to start some of that in schools, colleges and universities.  We need to invite and involve more young people in this ground coverage. 
This last election, I saw a pitiful effort in getting help from volunteers.  It is people who convince people and this is best done in a one-on-one fashion.  We need to get excited NOW about our selection of RNC National Chairman and RNC Chairmen in the individual states.  This is where the grassroots get their best hold- in the states- in the cities - in the towns across America.  It is our message:  no matter how it is spread that must be honed.
We must be a party that includes not excludes.  We must not accept the premise that one group of people, or certain states can't be brought into our tent.  It is the message and we who believe in this cause must all be it's Messenger!

 

Internet and feet in the street...

Submitted by POTUS2012 on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 22:05.

Char,

 

I agree with you 100%.... !! 27% of the American voters were contacted face to face with an Obama supporter. How many face to face contacts did the GOP have? Locally, my GOP stuffs crap into plastic bags and hangs it on my mailbox. I get annoying phonecalls instead of a handshake asking for my vote. How many feet were in my street asking for my vote for John McCain?

How can we get excited over the RNC's choice...

Submitted by davidfarrar on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 17:51.

...of party's chair, when we, as registered Republicans and party members, were never asked who we wanted as our next RNC? This is exactly our point.

Look, Char, let me clue you in on a little secret: both parties could care less about the grassroot of their parties' when it comes to national and state-wide elections. As far as they are concerned, they are only a hindrence. They have long, long ago sold their souls to mass media and mass marketing. In local elections it is the unions, firefighters, policemen, school teachers who largely dominate.

In fact, I can assure you, the very last thing either parties' political elites want to see is an informed, activted and networked grassroot structure in their party structure.

ex animo

davidfarrar

The Good Ol' Boy party

Submitted by POTUS2012 on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 18:15.

Almost a year and change ago, there stood 10 white men on a stage... Each wearing a blue suit, different color tie, and of course, their American flag pin. The Good Ol' Boy party.... not the GOP of today. We are female, black, Indian, Chinese, Hebrew, gay, union members, soccer & hockey moms and dads, Hispanic, young and bloggers.

Our next President should reflect our changing nation. I have nothing against white men. It is time to promote women.... not just a fiesty one two months before an election when you need the female voters after Hilary got dumped.

Our next campaigning presidential candidate should hire a company who knows how to maintain a website. The McCain Nation website was not user friendly or interactive. They tallied 3 parties I was giving instead of one. They never contacted me, personally, via phone call to thank me for giving one. I could not interact with any of my guests unless they personally gave me their email address.

Save your money on the FedEx envelopes begging for more money. I received at least 6-8 requests per week. After I gave the McCain campaign a check, I received a thank-you note with a request for more money. Obnoxious.

Obama's peeps sold the nation on three things: Change, Hope and ' Yes, we can'. McCain's peeps.... Country First??? Change you can believe in?? Sarah is one of us? Maybe you could hire an advertising agency in Manhattan and get the job done right? McCain's peeps never got me excited about voting for John McCain or Sarah Palin.

We are at war with the terrorists. The American people don't want another warrior in the White House. I respect John McCain and his sacrifices for our nation. We need a woman or man who's focus is our nation, its economy, its healthcare, its debt. We still need to protect Americans from terrorists, but we don't need a warrior to do that. That's the job descriptions of the Generals at the Pentagon. The ones who attended War College.

Give me Bobby Jindal. Sarah Palin. Michael Steele. That's just for starters.... Get me excited about  getting my feet in the street. Hold your local GOP more accountable too. There's lots of dead wood as committeepeople. Biggest effort from them is handing out a GOP ballot before I vote or stuffing crap into a mailbox. Pathetic at best!

GET ME EXCITED!!!!! It is about me.....

Republican values!

Submitted by PR51 on Tue, 12/02/2008 - 12:48.

One area that the Republican Party needs to look is to the ever growing Hispanic population in US. For many republicans, Hispanics should just go home. However, the party must consider that most of the Hispanics share our same values: family, religion, marriage between a man and a woman, work, etc... Most Hispanics are conservatives! The Republican Party must reconcile their historic animosity against Hispanics and bring them home. Look at Puerto Rico. They rejected Obama in the primaries. They also elected a republican Governor for the first time in over 40 years! By the way, the new governor in PR is the only gain that the Republicans had this election cycle.