Birds of a feather flock together... and win elections
Today Emi put up a post commenting on the access to public comments conservative blogs provide compared to more left-leaning blogs. It is no surprise that the more liberal blogs are more open to public comments, as they do not require registration, etc.
Why is that? Justin makes an excellent point in his comment to Emi, "Republicans are better at controlling the message...Dems don't have a solid platform to stand behind; they are fragmented."
I could not agree more. It seems that Republicans stick together and try to avoid and/or hide any form of in-fighting, while Democrats are much more factioned, so to speak. In my opinion, there seem to be less divisions of Republicans, then Democrats. For instance, there are moderate Dems, conservative Dems, liberal Dems, etc. All of which, have differing positions on the issues. Republicans exude a stronger sense of unity and a consistent message, this some say(and I tend to agree), has brought them success as of late.
Thus, Democrats allow comments on blogs because there are so many different types of Dems, with so much to say. Republicans are less prone to provide access to comments because they want to ensure that they all uniformly display the same message and unity. The best way to do that is to have less people doing the talking or risking public dissention.
However, I don't think Democrats could pull off the same tactic of restricting comments on blogs. Please note that I am biased, but I think that Dems are too diverse and are a party based on providing a voice for those who can't help themselves. The Republican way of controlling the message particularly on conservative blogs works for them. I think the Democrat way works for them based on what the party represents, but is there another way to display more party unity on the part of the Democrats? Is that what the Dems need to be successful?
Why is that? Justin makes an excellent point in his comment to Emi, "Republicans are better at controlling the message...Dems don't have a solid platform to stand behind; they are fragmented."
I could not agree more. It seems that Republicans stick together and try to avoid and/or hide any form of in-fighting, while Democrats are much more factioned, so to speak. In my opinion, there seem to be less divisions of Republicans, then Democrats. For instance, there are moderate Dems, conservative Dems, liberal Dems, etc. All of which, have differing positions on the issues. Republicans exude a stronger sense of unity and a consistent message, this some say(and I tend to agree), has brought them success as of late.
Thus, Democrats allow comments on blogs because there are so many different types of Dems, with so much to say. Republicans are less prone to provide access to comments because they want to ensure that they all uniformly display the same message and unity. The best way to do that is to have less people doing the talking or risking public dissention.
However, I don't think Democrats could pull off the same tactic of restricting comments on blogs. Please note that I am biased, but I think that Dems are too diverse and are a party based on providing a voice for those who can't help themselves. The Republican way of controlling the message particularly on conservative blogs works for them. I think the Democrat way works for them based on what the party represents, but is there another way to display more party unity on the part of the Democrats? Is that what the Dems need to be successful?
3 Comments:
I think that's sad. We should all be open to a free exchange of ideas. You can still have message discipline when Dems talk to the MSM, without cutting off other voices on their blogs.
That's an interesting theory-that Dems are more diversified in their opinion and therefore are more open to different opinions on blogs. I, being a Dem, don't read Republican blogs very often, so I can't really compare and contrast their styles. However, the diversity of opinion is one of the things I love about my party. I know that to win an election, we need to settle on a message. However, I see no problem with blogs serving as an outlet for people with less mainstream opinions, as long as they support the party when it counts.
Politics is a team sport. There's no way to win without compromise. There is as much diversity of thought in the Republican Party as there is in the Democratic Party. I think Republicans realize if we want to stay in power or increase our power in any way we all have to be on the same team with the same message. There’s power in numbers.
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