Republican Strategist Mindy Finn
Believes an Appeal to Conservatives is Needed to Energize the GOP
Jan 2, 2009
On a recent airing of C-Span’s “Washington Journal,” Republican Internet strategist Mindy Finn spoke about the health of America’s Republican Party. She stated that the GOP failed to take advantage of the capabilities of the Internet during the 2008 presidential campaign and that the Republicans need to embrace technology in the future if they are to remain viable. Her testimony was more proof that, especially since losing the presidential election, Republicans believe they are headed for history’s rubbish bin if they fail to implement major changes.
Need to Embrace Technology
Mindy Finn is a co-founder of “Rebuild the Party” that involves a website and a movement to energize conservative Republican ideals. At age 27, Finn is a veteran online operative, having served on President Bush's eCampaign in 2004 and supervised Mitt Romney's Web strategy. She believes the Republicans “need to face 21st-century politics with 21st-century tools."
Today’s political climate has been explained in this way: the right owns talk radio and the left owns the Internet. In order to win, the Republicans need to ramp up their activities with Web technologies. Newt Gingrich echoes this, saying that Republicans are behind the times in online technologies, although this doesn’t explain Ron Paul’s explosive support and ability to raise funds on the Web.
The 10-Point Plan for Change
One caller to the January 1st “Washington Journal” show spoke of the need to rid the GOP of neo-cons, but Mindy Finn’s response to that caller was minimal. In Finn’s words, “We need a transformation.” And she suggested that the Party steal Obama’s phrase “Yes we can.”
She focused on the Rebuildtheparty.com site and its “10-point Action Plan” to resurrect the Republican Party from certain oblivion. Most of the plan consists of instruction on how to rebuild the Republican Party structure, how to select effective management, and how to get out the Republican message. Some might say this sounds like more of the same.
Upper Management
The Republican upper management attitude could be illustrated by an unfortunate statement made by Gary Emineth, North Dakota Republican Party Chairman, in December in “The Hill” about responding to the public: “At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what the public thinks; it matters what 168 of us think.” The 168 he alludes to are the upper echelon members of the Party.
Emineth evidently desires to rebuild the Party also, but plans to do so by instituting a different method of electing the RNC Chairman. His statement in “The Hill” makes it sound like he wants a structure change, not a change in management attitude or Party behavior toward the public.
Finn and Rebuildtheparty.com plan to save the Party from those that Emineth alludes to: the Republican status-quo.
Grassroots-Level Appeal
Finn discussed the 10-Point Action Plan with the C-Span moderator, Pedro Echevarria, and acknowledged the Party’s focus must include listening to individuals. Conservatives who believe the Republican Party is not interested in their individual voices should be encouraged that Finn states “Rebuild the Party” wants to capitalize on activism at the grassroots level. She stated that local grassroots activism would be vital to the rebuilding of the Party. Considering that fewer Republicans voted in the 2008 presidential election than in 2004, presumably because neither candidate appealed to them, it would behoove their Party to value a return to their favored principles: those embedded in the foundation for the construction of the Constitution by the Founding Fathers. The abandonment of these basic principles has led conservatives to flee the Republican Party.
Saying “Yes we can” doesn’t create change. Change comes from within, and Republicans must change Party behavior to remain viable.
Sources:
Rebuild the Party’s 10-Point Action Plan
Wilson, Reid. The Hill. “RNC members push for special meeting.” Dec 23, 2008.
 |
