MoveOn.org turned ten last month and still no conservative
equivalent has emerged. In the 2003-04 election cycle, MoveOn.org
raised a massive $180 million to slander Republicans and praise
Democrats. In 2006, their virtual phone banking effort yielded
seven million calls, and they raised $25 million to defeat
Republicans in swing districts.
Despite a $35 million cash infusion from billionaire conservative
Sheldon Adelson, Freedom’s Watch failed to create a similar
potent online movement for conservatism. Though everyone from Tom
DeLay to the founders of PayPal has tried, conservatives have
embarrassingly failed to harness Web 2.0 to their advantage again
and again. The left would claim that their Internet dominance
proves liberals are more open to new ideas than conservatives.
The Webster’s Dictionary: How To Use The Web To
Transform The World by Ralph Benko, a former official in the
Reagan administration, turns that notion on its head by supplying
evidence that conservatives get the Internet, at last. Benko has
written a how-to guide for conservative organizations setting up
political websites just as powerful as DailyKos. It’s a book akin
to Real Estate for Dummies. And with blurbs from Steve
Forbes, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, and tech-savvy
conservative thinker George Gilder, liberals dismiss this book at
their peril.
Benko’s tract is witty, an easy-to-read book that outlines the
basics and the most complex of maneuvers in creating a
politically-potent website. From the most mundane (“How to get a
domain name”), to the more sophisticated (“the types of web
development teams out there”), it is a book one could easily see
the elite at the Competitive Enterprise Institute or the American
Enterprise Institute buying, and then using its insights to
dramatically re-create their websites into top-notch Web 2.0
entities that successfully draw in people, galvanize, and
mobilize them for the Right.
Many conservative websites could use the advice. Benko hammers
home that MoveOn.org and the DailyKos fundamentally understand
that they exist as effective entities not because they “push an
agenda” per say, but because they first and foremost are focused
on nurturing an online community. He faults Freedom’s Watch for
pushing an agenda and then committing the double sin of trying to
create an online community using a top-down model, instead of a
bottom-up model.
The Webster’s Dictionary primarily gets its insight and
data from Benko’s own meticulous research analyzing the left’s
websites. He is almost like a Republican version of a CIA
Sovietologist, except Benko’s the Sovietologist of the Left’s Web
2.0 capabilities.
Through interviews with and careful study of Web 2.0 top dogs
like Howard Dean’s online man Joe Trippi, Ron Paul “moneybomb”
maker Trevor Lyman, and DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga,
Benko’s book is rich with insight from the enemy on what works
(and more importantly, what doesn’t work) in today’s Internet
age.
But one of the most appealing aspects about The Webster’s
Dictionary is Benko’s passion. He understands the power of
the web, and using the web to produce conservative victories is
clearly his charge. Benko identifies himself in the book
(especially, when outlining his “10 Laws”) as “The Webster”, and
his passion for Internet-fueled, “grassroots conservative chic”
is more than apparent and comes out in almost any page. He quotes
Dante to Joseph Pulitzer to highlight his points (and does so
successfully). I found myself quite unusually turning every page
eagerly, learning all manner of interesting things and how they
correspond to creating a successful, politically powerful
website.
The Webster’s Dictionary already has its own online presence where
readers can acquire a free copy. The book became available in
hardcopy form in mid-October. MoveOn beware, because conservative
are-a-learnin’.
