While the results have yet to come in from today’s election, there is no question that Democrats are poised to make significant inroads in the House and Senate, and unfortunately, last minute polling does not bode well for John McCain.  Fred Barnes writes a compelling piece for the Wall Street Journal about how this election could result in an unparalleled “lurch to the left.”

After assessing the damage that unchecked Democratic governmental control could do, Barnes then writes that:

There’s still another change in Washington that shouldn’t be overlooked: a mainstream media that’s become reflexively liberal. It’s true the national press corps has been monopolized by liberals for years. The difference now is that the media’s liberal tendencies are unleashed and permeate reporting on national affairs.

I don’t think that any Republican or conservative in their right mind would digress with this point.  However, I think that there is a way that we can help to contain the mainstream media’s promotion of such a “lurch to the left.”  Quite simply, we need to start capitalizing on new media in order to diminish the influence of old mainstream media.

After dominating online media through 2004, Republicans have lost their edge – largely due to the rise of Web 2.0.  Web 1.0 was all about information, and quite frankly, Republicans are great at disseminating information and winning the propaganda war.  But Web 2.0 raises a whole new dimension, one I’ve discussed briefly in a previous post, called “peer production.” Peer production is what happens when “self-organizing, egalitarian communities of individuals … come together voluntarily to produce a shared outcome” (Tapscott, Don, and Anthony D. Williams. Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything.).

Unfortunately, so far, only Democrats and Ron Paul have really been able to understand and thus capitalize on the new Web.  However after this election (especially if Obama wins), if we Republicans want to be able to articulate our message and our side of the story, we’re going to need to build a powerful Web 2.0 infrastructure that effectively utilizes peer production.  If we do not, we stand the risk of allowing Democrats and the liberal media to shape discussion and debate in this country for the foreseeable future.

Can we do this? Absolutely. It will certainly take a lot of time, work, and dedication – along with a commitment to change among Republicans.  I plan to elaborate on this with more concrete ideas and potential solutions in the coming weeks, and I’ll ask our other contributors to do the same.  But for now, I’m going to get back to working for a McCain-Palin victory.  Onward and upward!

Last 5 posts by Aaron Marks

• Onward and Upward: Building a Sustainable Majority - January 22nd, 2010
• Dear Young Voters: This Is What You Get When You Don't Vote - December 1st, 2009
• The Youth Vote and the 2009 Elections - November 6th, 2009
• The Best of the Post-2009 Election Spin - November 5th, 2009
• Introducing NextGenGOP Executive Director James Kane - October 20th, 2009