Whether political parties are rallying the base or appealing to undecided voters, they always abide by the golden rule of political communication: Keep it simple. Online, where press releases are seeds for the blogosphere echo chamber, political groups and candidates pick a tacky slogan and stick with it, at the expense of any meaningful explanation of the issues.
It doesn't have to be this way! Candidates already use a variety of data, including consumer records, to target voters based on the issues they care about; the internet should allow candidates to specifically target voters based on their knowledge of the issues. There are voters out there who care deeply about policy and would like to hear a candidate speak to their interests. Unfortunately, in a system of political communication that appeals to the lowest common denominator, these people are often left uninspired and are not as politically engaged as they should be.
Let's take the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, for instance. Day after day I receive their press releases, most of which deride some Republican, whether it be "Hollywood Sean Duffy" or the "GOP Basement Dweller," (a legislator who lives in his brother's basement), usually based on some warped interpretation of a statement they made. While this type of nonsense serves an important role in rallying the blogosphere base, it does nothing to stimulate the interest of many liberals who actually care about policy.
It's not that the Democratic Party will lose New York Times-reading liberals come election time, but it might not reap the benefits of their energy and money throughout the rest of the year. These are the people who go the polls, vote for the lesser of two evils, but then want nothing to do with party politics until the next presidential election.
As the GOP as so clearly displayed over the past decade, an intellectual exodus does not necessarily doom a party. However, with increasingly specialized communication online, there's no reason to sacrifice the intellectuals. It would be rather easy for local parties to organize discussion groups both online or at a bar and attract like-minded folks to feel as if they're part of the cauldron of ideas that should drive a party. Drinking Liberally is a great example.
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